A powerful typhoon Usagi, packing high-power winds, today hit China’s south-eastern coast, leading to closure of several schools and disruption of air traffic.
Super Typhoon Usagi was monitored 404 km south-east of Hong Kong, packing winds of 48 meters per second at the storm’s eye.
It is expected to strike south China’s Pearl River Delta sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Schools in Xiamen City on the eastern coast of Fujian Province and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, called off classes this morning, which is working day due earlier festival holidays.
Fujian suspended shipping transport between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan as Usagi brought strong winds and downpours to its offshore region.
Also major Chinese airlines canceled flights to cities in southern China’s Guangdong and Fujian provinces as well as to Hong Kong and Macao due to the possibility that local airports would be battered by heavy rains and strong gales starting at this noon.
Although the typhoon was still hundreds of kilometres away, related storms have already taken out three major power lines, cutting off electricity supply to about 1,70,000 households in Fujian.
Over 25,000 households suffered power outage, the agency said.
The Fujian Provincial Flood Control Headquarters warned that sea storm tides would pose a threat to coastal embankments as the typhoon coincides with astronomical tide.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from low-lying coastal areas in the province.
The flood control headquarters has ordered reinforced patrols so that emergency repairs can be made to prevent embankment breach.