Guangdong expressways, rail services reopen after Typhoon Noul

After Typhoon Noul left the province and weakened on Monday, Guangdong expressways subject to temporary traffic control measures have been largely reopened to traffic, and rail services are expected to gradually resume normal operations.

Railway authorities said normal operations had resumed on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway as of 8 am on Monday. The Beijing-Kowloon Railway service was expected to resume at 2 pm, and Ganzhou-Shaoguan Railway operations were estimated to resume at 8 pm.

Following an assessment by authorities in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, ports at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge resumed partial operations starting at noon on Monday.

Guangdong's Level II emergency response for typhoon prevention has been downgraded to a Level IV.

China Railway Guangzhou Group had adjusted or suspended all high-speed and conventional rail services on Saturday in response to the storms. Transport authorities had also imposed temporary traffic control measures on some expressways. Widespread flight delays and cancellations were reported at airports in Guangzhou and Shenzhen over the weekend.

Noul, the 12th typhoon of the year, battered the cities of Shenzhen, Huizhou, and Shanwei when it made landfall in Pinghai township, Huidong county, early on Sunday morning.

Noul was the first typhoon to make landfall in Guangdong this year. It was also the strongest typhoon to hit China this year and the most powerful to strike areas east of the Pearl River Estuary in the past decade.

Fifteen of the hardest-hit cities suspended classes, construction, production, transportation, and business operations to mitigate the risk of accidents and casualties. Authorities ordered all workers to return to shore and required fishing vessels to seek shelter on Saturday.

About 900,000 residents living in low-lying areas were evacuated ahead of the typhoon's landfall. Emergency response measures were activated in 135 districts and counties across the province's 19 prefecture-level cities.

According to Guangdong's water conservancy department, 338 reservoirs across the province had discharged a combined 1.22 billion cubic meters of water to increase flood-control storage capacity as of 5 pm on Sunday.