China braces for Typhoon Doksuri's landfall, shutting schools and
businesses
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[July 27, 2023]
By Laurie Chen, Yimou Lee and Ann Wang
BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) -China on Thursday braced for the imminent
landfall of Typhoon Doksuri, shutting schools and businesses in some
coastal cities, while its national observatory renewed its most severe
weather alert after overnight heavy rainfall in the country's southwest.
The approaching typhoon is expected to make landfall on China's
southeast coast in the early hours of Friday, state radio reported,
citing Fujian provincial weather authorities.
China's national observatory has classified Doksuri as a "strong"
typhoon, with maximum winds of 180 kilometers (112 miles) per hour, as
it hurtled northwest through the Taiwan Strait towards Fujian province
as of 12:00 p.m. (0400 GMT).
At one point Doksuri was a super typhoon, but lost some of its strength
after it lashed the coastline of the northern Philippines on Wednesday,
bursting banks of rivers and leaving thousands without electricity.
Doksuri killed five people in the Philippines, according to the
country's disaster agency.
Three coastal cities in Fujian province shut schools, businesses and
factories on Thursday, state media reported, while flood control
authorities in one of them, Xiamen, warned of a "serious impact".
However, the China Meterological Administration forecast that it would
be weaker than 2016's Typhoon Meranti, the strongest to hit China's
eastern coast since 1949 and which killed at least 11 people.
Fifteen provinces and city-level administrative units across China have
been affected by "severe" weather including thunderstorms, heavy
rainfall, gales and hail ahead of Doksuri's landfall, state media Xinhua
reported.
Beijing launched emergency flood control operations in the country's
southwest on Wednesday night after torrential rains in the provinces of
Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan as well as the nearby metropolis of
Chongqing.
Heavy flooding in the city of Luzhou, Sichuan province, swept cars onto
tree trunks, according to videos circulating on Chinese social media.
Passenger ships and fishing boats have also been grounded in parts of
coastal Zhejiang province immediately north of Fujian.
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Members of the Philippine Coast Guard
remove a fallen tree from a road following the onslaught of Typhoon
Doksuri in Buguey, Cagayan province, Philippines, July 26, 2023.
Philippine Coast Guard/Handout via REUTERS
SCHOOLS CLOSED IN TAIWAN
Meanwhile, southern Taiwan on Thursday shut businesses and schools,
and airlines cancelled hundreds of flights, amid warnings of
landslides and floods as Typhoon Doksuri churned past the island en
route to China.
Taiwan's weather bureau issued wind and rain warnings on Thursday
for the southern and eastern parts of the island, including the
major port city of Kaohsiung where businesses and schools were
closed and landslide warnings issued.
All domestic flights and ferry lines were suspended in Taiwan while
more than 100 international flights were cancelled or delayed.
Railway services between southern and eastern Taiwan were shut.
More than 5,700 people were evacuated as a precaution, mostly in the
mountainous southern and eastern Taiwan, where more than 0.7 metres
of rainfall was recorded in some areas and up to 1 metre of rain was
forecast.
The storm had cut power from more than 49,000 households across
Taiwan but the majority of them had since been restored.
"Typhoon Doksuri should not be underestimated," Kaohsiung city mayor
Chen Chi-mai said in a Facebook post late on Wednesday.
"The police and military force will assist in the effort of forced
evacuation if needed," he said, pointing to the threat of torrential
rain in mountainous areas.
Braving occasional showers and winds, Taiwan's armed forces pressed
ahead with a large-scale anti-landing drill on a beach near the
major Taipei Port just outside the capital, simulating the repulsion
of an enemy force with ground troops and tanks amid high military
tensions with neighboring China.
The storm has disrupted parts of Taiwan's main annual Han Kuang
exercises and air-raid drills that started on Monday, as authorities
cancelled some exercises citing safety concerns and the need to make
preparations for the typhoon.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen and Beijing Newsroom in Beijing and Yimou
Lee and Ann Wang in Taipei; Editing by Michael Perry and Jacqueline
Wong)
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