·Strong winds and heavy rainstorms are expected to slam most part of Zhejiang.
HANGZHOU, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Typhoon Morakot, the eighth of the year, forced the evacuation of nealry 1 million people in two coastal east China provinces Sunday. More than 490,000 residents of Zhejiang and more than 505,000 from Fujian have been relocated to safety.
In Zhejiang approximately 35,440 ships have been called back from sea, the provincial flood-control headquarters said Sunday morning.
Typhoon Morakot landed in east China's Fujian Province at 4:20 p.m. on Sunday, packing winds up to 12 kilometers per hour in its eye.
The 8th typhoon of the year made landfall in the coastal areas of Beibi Town, Xiapu County of Ningde City, the provincial meteorological bureau said.
Zhejiang issued a red alert, the highest, Sunday morning, as it registered a maximum wind speed of nearly 180 km an hour in the coastal Taizhou City area. Gales, expected to last for 60 hours, were expected to cause waves up to 7 meters.
Strong winds and heavy rainstorms have already caused problems in the province and are expected to do further damage when the typhoon lands.
Wenzhou City airport has canceled 39 domestic flights, the airport authority said.
Floods and landslides triggered by continuous rainfall paralyzed traffic in many rural areas.
Officials in some Zhejiang villages were riding bicycles to distribute drinking water and instant noodles to households stranded by deep water.
"Some villages have been inundated and vehicles can't reach them," said taxi driver Wang Jian.
The province registered its greatest precipitation of 800 mm in Taishun County, Wenzhou.
A number of expressways in the province had been closed, said the provincial highway management authority.
Morakot has also caused havoc in Fujian.
A cargo ship was stranded amid strong winds and rescuers were trying to rescue its eight sailors.
The ship, Daqing 254, lost control at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday as it was attempting to take shelter from the wind.
The vessel, with a capacity of more than 30,000 tonnes, has been blown on to a reef area on Qingshan Island near Ningde City.
Li Saixi, a native of Qiyu Village in Luoyuan County, was busy pumping water out of his basement following a downpour Saturday night.
"The rain gushed into my house at midnight and the water level had reached to my thigh about 2 a.m.", he said.
Owners of many coastal aquafarms were securing production facilities as strong winds pushed up high waves.
The supply of vegetables and seafoods to outdoor markets of agricultural products in Lianjiang County has been severely cut, and workers are clearing streets after strong winds scattered trash.
Shanghai, directly north of Zhejiang, has released stored water from inland rivers to reduce levels by up to 40 cm in preparation for the typhoon's arrival, the municipal flood control headquarters said Sunday.
Water conservation and disaster-control authorities of Anhui Province were dispatching working teams to reinforce preventative measures in disaster-prone areas before the typhoon arrives.
WAVE ALERT LEVEL RAISED
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| The urban area of Linbian Township in Pingtung County of southeast China's Taiwan, is flooded Aug. 8, 2009, because of heavy rainfall brought by typhoon "Morakot". (Xinhua/Wu Ching-teng)
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On Saturday afternoon, the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center upgraded its alert level for both stormy tide and sea wave from "orange" to "red", the highest level.
The center said as a result of Typhoon Morakot, the stormy tide along the coast of Zhejiang Province and northern part of Fujian Province would be 0.5 meters to 1.8 meters high until Sunday afternoon.
The sea in southern part of the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait will be very rough, with monster waves as high as eight meters, the center warned.
Other coastal areas from Shanghai to Guangdong Province will all experience abnormally high waves, from 2.5 meters to six meters high, it said.
China adopts a four-grade warning system for stormy tide, tsunami, sea ice and sea wave, which uses four colors (red, orange, yellow and blue) to indicate different levels of emergency.
East China braces for incoming typhoon Morakot; 10 still missing
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| Fishing boats moor at a port to avoid the approaching Typhoon Morakot in Jinjiang, southeast China's Fujian Province, Aug. 8, 2009. (Xinhua/Xiang Kailai)
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BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- East China is bracing for typhoon Morakot's approach after it slammed into Taiwan Friday night.
Weather forecasters said late Saturday Morakot was likely to land on the coast from Cangnan, Zhejiang province, to Xiapu, neighboring Fujian province, between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday.
Although the typhoon this year is expected to weaken to a tropical storm before it arrives in the Chinese mainland, it was packing winds of 137 kilometers an hour at 7 a.m. Saturday and churning northwestwards at a speed of 15 to 20 kilometers an hour. It has already unleashed torrential rain in Fujian where, at five sites, water levels have been recorded at 0.02 to 0.66 meters above warning levels.
The earlier tropical storm Goni has also wreaked havoc in South China Sea, leaving as many as 156 fishermen and crew members from Cambodia, Vietnam and China missing at once. Chinese maritime authorities had rescued 146 by 6 p.m. and the remaining 10 from China were still missing.
PREPARATION IN FUJIAN
More than 480,000 people in Fujian have been evacuated and its Zherong County received more than 300 mm of precipitation on Saturday afternoon.
In Luoyuan county of Fuzhou city, Fujian's capital, people stayed at home during the weekend and roads were almost empty. Fewer sellers appeared in the county's vegetable market.
"The fields were flooded," said Li Sailian, a vegetable seller. "Strong winds broke the ropes tying down the horsebeans, and the crown daisies (chrysanthemum greens) were destroyed," she said.
Li brought all her available stock to the market, fearing the storm would destroy it completely.
In downtown Fuzhou, where several big trees have already been toppled by gale-force winds, people were rushing to supermarkets for necessities before the typhoon arrived.
All flights from Saturday noon onwards at the airport in Fuzhou were cancelled, leaving more than 120 passengers stranded. Airport staff were helping with refunds.
Seventeen of the 312 flights to and from the airport in coastal Xiamen city were cancelled, most of which were heading to Anhui, Guangdong and Taiwan.
In Putian City, also in Fujian, all scenic sites and ports have been closed and school classes suspended. A team of 26,222 people has been formed and equipped with flood-control materials, said Huang Dongzhou, director of the city's flood control office.
All of the city's 7,168 fishing ships have returned to harbor, Huang said.
The province's Ningde city is strengthening its defences to bear the brunt of Morakot, local meteorological authorities said.
People there are also reinforcing reservoirs with bricks and stones. Water in the city's 20 major reservoirs is only at 54 percent of their combined capacity, so officials with the flood control office said they think the rainfall will help with drought relief, as long as proper measures are taken to ensure safety.
Residents are also busy reinforcing their own houses.
Chen Kongsheng, a 61-year-old man, has attached four large rocks to the girders of his house, so that the typhoon "won't tear off his roof".
About 118,000 people in the city have been evacuated, said Chen Rongkai, Communist Party chief of the city.
Ningde has readied 103 rescue boats, 15 rafts and 8,300 life jackets to help people affected by the typhoon.
EFFORTS AND TROUBLES ELSEWHERE
In adjacent Zhejiang Province, rainfall exceeded 50 millimetres on 6.8 percent of the province's land on Friday night. The highest reading was 110 millimetres in Cangnan county bordering Fujian.
An expressway from Wenzhou of Zhejiang to Fujian was closed for 12 kilometers, while another from Hangzhou to Anhui Province was cut by landslides.
Power supply to 80 villages was also cut. Nearly 500,000 residents and tourists in danger areas had been evacuated by 9 p.m. and the province has called nearly 30,000 ships back to harbor.
More than 50,000 soldiers were prepared for emergencies in Zhejiang, said the local government.
Shanghai was put on high alert and the World Expo venue is being protected around the clock.
More than 80 foreign ships were delayed or had their voyages cancelled. "We are unlikely to resume if the typhoon moves northwestwards," said the captain of a Japanese cargo ship, which was scheduled to sail for Japan Saturday at noon.
In addition, more than 140 flights in Shanghai had been delayed by about 10 p.m..
Anhui issued its first typhoon warning this year, and advised residents to stay indoors.
East China's Shandong province has also warned local governments to take measures beforehand to reduce losses from extreme weather.
Morakot, which means "emerald" in Thai, is the eighth storm to hit China this year. It landed in Hualien of Taiwan at 11:45 p.m. Friday, and left at least six people dead or missing. A further 12 were injured. Morakot also overturned cars and cut power supplies.
