Today's Edition
FUZHOU (WAM)
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 kmph 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 6am on Friday, its center was located within Youxi County, the city of Sanming, packing winds of up to 100.8 kmph near the center.
As of 6am 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 according to Xinhua news agency.
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.
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.
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.
