Typhoon Gaemi hammers Fujian

Disaster relief work is well-organized and proceeding smoothly in Fujian after it was hit by Typhoon Gaemi, the third typhoon of the year, which made its second landfall in the province on Thursday evening.

On Friday morning, the National Meteorological Center adjusted the typhoon alarm level from red to orange — from the highest to the second-highest — as the typhoon weakened to a severe tropical storm around 9 pm on Thursday.

The typhoon was forecast by the meteorological center to continue moving northwestward at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour. It was expected to move past neighboring Jiangxi province around Friday evening, and will keep heading north.

As of 6 am on Friday, the typhoon had affected 721 towns in 59 counties in Fujian, with about 628,600 people impacted, according to local authorities. About 291,800 residents have been transferred from dangerous areas.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters sent working teams to typhoon-stricken areas on Thursday to guide and assist local authorities in relocating people.

Thirty-three-year-old Han Luyang, from Hebei province, suspended his cycling tour in Fujian on Wednesday. He told Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, a news outlet in Hunan, that he was panicked about the typhoon at first as he had never run into one before.

"But the curiosity surpassed the fear," he said.

With the rain and wind abating in Fujian, the province is resuming the operation of trains from Friday.

As reported by ThePaper.cn, a news outlet headquartered in Shanghai, China Railway Nanchang Bureau Group in Jiangxi province has so far resumed 65 trains within the province, and to southern and northwestern provinces and cities such as Chongqing.

The meteorological center also issued alarms for rainstorms and strong weather on Friday morning. It forecast that torrential rains or rainstorms will hit the southern part of Taiwan, and the eastern and southern provinces including Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Anhui from Friday to Saturday.

Some inland and northeastern provinces — for example, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region — will also see downpours in the next few days.

Thunderstorms and hail may occur in eastern, southern and northwestern provinces due to the movement of the typhoon, according to the center, but the rains and winds it causes will relieve the scorching heat in the southern provinces, which have seen temperatures reach over 35 C or even near 40 C in recent weeks.

Dong Lin, the center's chief forecaster, said at an online news conference that strong wind and rain brought by Typhoon Gaemi will last for quite a long period as the typhoon is closely related with the southwest monsoon and has high water vapor content.

She reminded the public of extreme rainfall and possible secondary disasters caused by the continuous rains.

She added that the rain forecast has uncertainties and she suggested the public pay close attention to the latest weather forecasts and alerts.

Hu Meidong in Fuzhou contributed to this story.