First typhoon of year lands in Guangdong

Packing winds of 83 km/h, Nuri sparks warnings of torrents, landslides

Typhoon Nuri became the first typhoon to make landfall in China this year when it hit the coast of the southern province of Guangdong on Sunday morning, the National Meteorological Center said.

Nuri, the second typhoon of the year, made landfall on Hailing Island in Yangjiang at 8:50 am, the center said. The first typhoon of the year, Vongfong, hit the central Philippines last month.

Guangdong's meteorological service said Nuri had the intensity of a tropical storm when it landed, packing winds of almost 83 kilometers per hour near its center. It headed northwest and degraded into a depression in the afternoon.

The center renewed a blue typhoon alert and a yellow rainstorm alert, forecasting strong winds for parts of the South China Sea and Guangdong and rainstorms in Hainan province, parts of Guangdong and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region from Sunday to Monday.

On Saturday, China activated a level-four emergency response, the lowest in the country's four-tier warning system, for Nuri.

Parts of Guangdong and Guangxi are at risk of mountain torrents and landslides as the areas have recently been hit by rainstorms, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has sent a work team to Guangdong to assist in disaster relief efforts.

Zhang Ling, chief weather forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, said Nuri made landfall about half a month earlier than the first typhoons to hit China in the past.

It had a relatively short life and was expected to weaken in the next three days, she said.

The Guangdong Meteorological Service has activated a level-three emergency response for Nuri, with neighboring Guangxi and Hainan activating level-four responses.

Separately, eight people died and five others are missing after a rainstorm hit Zunyi in Guizhou province last week, China Central Television reported.

Heavy rain began to batter Zunyi early on Thursday and led to heavy flooding in the town of Bifeng, in Zheng'an county.

More than 13,000 people were evacuated and 5,029 houses were damaged, local authorities said.

A search for the missing is underway. Local authorities have also launched disaster relief efforts to help those affected.

Guizhou has been experiencing its longest and wettest period of heavy rain since 1961, the province's department of emergency management said. It has issued warnings about the risks of disasters like mountain torrents and landslides.

State Councilor Wang Yong urged all-out flood control and disaster relief efforts to minimize potential losses and ensure the safety of people's lives and property.

Local authorities should ensure funding and resources for disaster relief, improve detection and prediction of floods and issue warnings in time, Wang, who also heads the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said at a meeting on Friday.