China's national observatory on Tuesday issued an orange alert for
Typhoon Higos, which is expected to bring gales and torrential rains to
south China. The typhoon, the seventh this year, strengthened into a severe
tropical storm at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and was centered at waters 305 km
southeast of Taishan City in south China's Guangdong Province, packing
winds of up to 25 meters per second, the National Meteorological Center
(NMC) said. The NMC expects the typhoon to move northwestward at a speed of
around 20 km per hour before making landfall in coastal areas between
Zhuhai and Wuchuan in Guangdong on Wednesday morning, where it will
gradually weaken. From Tuesday evening to Thursday, gales are expected to hit parts of
the South China Sea and the coastal waters of Guangdong Province,
according to the NMC. In the same period, regions including parts of Hainan, Guangdong, and
Yunnan provinces, as well as Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will
experience downpours, with some areas to see up to 250 mm of rainfall,
it said. China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red
representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow, and
blue. Prompted by Typhoon Higos, China's State Flood Control and Drought
Relief Headquarters on Tuesday activated a Level IV emergency response
against typhoons and floods, the lowest level of China's four-tier
emergency response system. The headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management stressed at
a Tuesday meeting the need to closely monitor the development of
Typhoon Higos, and to timely relocate vessels and people in areas likely
to be affected, while calling for precautions against disasters like
floods and urban waterlogging. Enditem
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