Tapah triggers evacuations, school closures in Guangdong

Thousands of people were evacuated and schools and kindergartens closed as Typhoon Tapah made landfall in the western coastal area of Guangdong province on Monday morning.

Tapah, the 16th typhoon of the year, came ashore in Taishan, a county-level city in Jiangmen, at about 8:50 am, according to the provincial meteorological observatory.

More than 41,000 people were evacuated from dangerous areas across Jiangmen before the storm's landfall, authorities said. In Taishan, about 120,000 students from 182 primary and secondary schools and kindergartens were affected by the suspension of classes.

Transportation services across western coastal Guangdong were heavily disrupted. All trains on the Shenzhen-Zhanjiang and Guangzhou-Maoming railway lines were suspended on Monday, with plans to gradually resume services on Tuesday, China Railway Guangzhou Group said.

Cross-sea trains between Guangdong and Hainan provinces were canceled or rerouted to terminate at Guangzhou Baiyun Railway Station on Sunday and Monday due to the suspension of ferry services. Temporary traffic controls were also imposed on Monday morning on the Guangdong western coastal expressway, the Huangmaohai cross-sea link and the Hailingisland bridge on the Yangjiang-Maoming expressway. Those restrictions were lifted by 3 pm as the typhoon weakened.

By 2 pm, the storm had moved into Yunfu, Guangdong, with maximum winds near its center reaching 90 kilometers per hour, bringing heavy rainfall across most of the province's western and southern coastal areas.

Nine of the top 10 rainfall sites nationwide on Monday were in Guangdong, according to the National Meteorological Center. The Meteorological Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality recorded 137.4 millimeters of rain, classified as extremely heavy and ranking first in the country. Haikou, capital of Hainan province, ranked second with 128.7 mm.

In Hong Kong, the planned 8 am flag-raising ceremony was canceled and day-time schools were closed for the day, while night schools resumed classes by the evening. The Home Affairs Department said 29 temporary shelters were opened across districts in Hong Kong, with 217 people accommodated by noon.

The typhoon was forecast to enter Wuzhou and Yulin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region by Monday evening, bringing extremely heavy rainfall to southeastern parts of the region. Some areas were expected to experience torrential rain and strong convective weather, including short-term thunderstorms and strong winds, according to the local meteorological observatory.

As of 10 am on Monday, 969 transport ships had taken shelter in Guangxi ports. Ferry services between Beihai and Weizhou Island were adjusted for Monday and Tuesday.