Typhoon Talim makes second landfall in China

NANNING -- Typhoon Talim, the fourth typhoon this year, landed in the coastal area of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region early Tuesday, the typhoon's second landfall in China after it first landed in Guangdong province on Monday night.

The typhoon landed at 5:45 am on Tuesday in the city of Beihai in Guangxi, and reached the city of Qinzhou at 9 am, according to the regional meteorological bureau.

The maximum wind speeds near the center of the typhoon reached 25 meters per second, and it is expected to move toward the northwest at a speed of 15 to 20 km per hour.

Rainstorms are forecast in the cities of Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and Chongzuo, with the gust speeds reaching as high as 33 meters per second in the southern and central parts of the region, the bureau said.

Guangxi raised its emergency response for typhoons and flooding from Level III to Level II earlier on Tuesday, according to flood control and drought relief authorities of the region.

The meteorological authorities of Guangxi raised its emergency response for major meteorological disaster (typhoon) to Level II on Monday night.

The water resources and meteorological authorities of Guangxi jointly issued an alert for mountain torrents, predicting that cities including Fangchenggang, Chongzuo, Nanning, Wuzhou and Hezhou are likely to be hit by mountain torrents in the period from 8 pm Monday to 8 pm Tuesday.

The city of Beihai ordered school, production and market suspension from 10 p.m. Monday, and Fangchenggang required construction sites, shopping centers, entertainment venues, restaurants and farmers' markets to halt operations on Tuesday.

At 6 am Tuesday, China's national observatory issued a yellow alert for the typhoon, which weakened to the level of severe tropical storm early Tuesday.

In the next 24 hours, heavy rainfall will lash regions including Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hunan and Guizhou, and gales will also be expected in most of the South China Sea and coastal areas, the National Meteorological Center said in a statement.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system for typhoons, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.