Residents evacuated, emergency responses activated in China to combat Typhoon Gaemi

FUZHOU, July 26 (Xinhua) — Chinese provinces have activated emergency responses and taken measures including evacuating residents to battle Typhoon Gaemi, the third typhoon of this year.

With a maximum wind speed of 118.8 km per hour at its center, the typhoon made its second landfall in the country on Thursday evening, at Xiuyu District in the city of Putian, east China’s Fujian Province. At 6 a.m. Friday, its center was located within Youxi County, the city of Sanming, packing winds of up to 100.8 km per hour near the center.

As of 6 a.m. Friday, about 628,600 people in Fujian had been affected by the typhoon, with some 290,000 residents temporarily relocated so far, said local authorities.

The typhoon is projected to move northwest at a speed of about 20 km per hour, with gradually weakening force, and is expected to reach Jiangxi Province around late Friday afternoon.

Affected by the typhoon, from 6 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Friday, 72 townships in 15 county-level areas across Fujian recorded an accumulated precipitation of more than 250 millimeters, and 12 townships in nine county-level areas saw an accumulated precipitation of over 400 millimeters, with the highest reaching 512.8 millimeters, according to local meteorological authorities.

In the neighboring Guangdong Province, the provincial emergency management department said that nearly 70,000 residents had been evacuated in advance as of 8 a.m. Friday, as heavy rains hit the eastern part of the province on Thursday and Friday.

The weather forecasts said the typhoon would affect Henan and Shandong provinces starting on Friday night, bringing rainstorms to many parts of the provinces.

To brace for the typhoon, the Henan provincial flood-control and drought-relief headquarters activated a Level-III emergency response for floods at 3 p.m. Friday, while the authorities in Shandong activated a Level-IV emergency response at 4 p.m. Friday. Both provinces issued a yellow alert for rainstorms on Friday afternoon.

China has a four-tier emergency response system for flood control, with Level I being the most urgent response, and a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Gaemi made its first landfall at around midnight Thursday in eastern Taiwan’s Yilan County, leaving three people dead and 380 injured, local authorities said. ■