Typhoon Prapiroon made landfall at the coastal area between Yangxi County and Dianbai County in western Guangdong at 7:20 p.m. Thursday. With a speed of 33 meters per second, the wind power reached 12 degrees on the Beaufort Scale near its eye. The typhoon moved toward inland area of Guangdong within 12hours at a speed of 15 to 20 kilometres per hour. Today it entered Guangxi, just west of Guangdong.
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated as Typhoon Prapiroon slammed into southern China Thursday, pounding an already battered area with more heavy rains and winds.
The storm packed 75 mph winds as it made landfall over a stretch of coastal Guangdong province, according to the state meteorological bureau. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. Authorities evacuated about 400,000 residents in low-lying areas of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan island, a popular tourist destination 370 miles southwest of Hong Kong.. Ferry and railway services linking Hainan to the mainland were also suspended. Some 84,000 people were forced to flee their homes in Guangxi, a poor, mountainous region west of Guangdong. It didn't break down the evacuations in other areas. State television showed raincoat-clad reporters braving downpours and wind gusts that bent trees and whipped up huge waves along Guangdong's coast. Stormy weather was forecast through Saturday for several southern provinces. The storm was moving northwest at 9 mph to 12 mph, the meteorological bureau said.
Credit NASA
This photo-like image was acquired by the Terra satellite on August 3 2006, at 11:30 a.m. local time (03:30 UTC). Prapiroon had a very well defined spiral shape and active thunderstorm systems close to the eyewall. Prapiroon at the time the Aqua satellite passed overhead had a closed eye: the centre of the storm still had significant cloud cover. Open eye structures are common in the most powerful of storms, and given that Prapiroon had a partially open eye the previous day, Typhoon Prapiroon would seem to be losing strength. The measured wind speeds, however, belay that assessment as the storm system’s peak sustained winds were estimated to be around 120 kilometres per hour around the time the image was captured.
Prapiroon, named after the Thai rain god, is the region's eighth major storm of the season. The area has been recovering from Typhoon Kaemi, which killed at least 35 people and left dozens missing last week, and Tropical Storm Bilis, which sparked floods and landslides that killed more than 600 people last month. Prapiroon, which killed six people in the Philippines, is "as strong, if not stronger" than Bilis, said Gao Shuanzhu, a senior official at the China's national observatory. More than 60,000 fishing boats and other vessels returned to port in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces, official media said. Rescue teams throughout the area were alert for floods and landslides. In Hong Kong, hundreds of flights were delayed, cancelled or redirected, stranding more than 3,000 passengers. At least one person was injured Wednesday when empty shipping containers were toppled by high winds at a container terminal in the city. A cargo vessel and barge ran aground on islands off the territory's coast, said Jack Chak, a spokesman for the Government Flying Service. Dozens of crew members were rescued, but there were no reports of injuries or deaths.
Philippine authorities said two people were also missing following lightning storms and flooding caused by Prapiroon, which struck the country as a tropical storm. About 15,000 people were evacuated as parts of the northern Philippines remained inundated. More than 1,460 people have been killed during this year's typhoon season, which started unusually early. Chinese officials estimate more than 1 million houses have been damaged and millions of acres of farmland and forests destroyed. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed Thursday for $4.8 million to provide food, tents and quilts for 240,000 people left homeless by floods caused by typhoons.
