Tropical Storm Linfa makes landfall
- Source: Global Times
- [07:48 June 22 2009]
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A villager struggles against strong winds in Jinjiang city, Fujian Province, Sunday. This year’s third tropical storm, Linfa, made landfall in Dongshi county, Jinjiang, at 8:30 pm. Photo: Xinhua
By Liang Chen
Downpours, gales and strong waves. Linfa, the third tropical storm of the year, has made landfall in East China’s Fujian Province and continues to move northward as residents and government departments in the region make full preparations for a possible natural disaster.
After being downgraded from a strong tropical storm, “Linfa made landfall in Dongshi township, Jinjiang, in Fujian Province at 8:30 pm Sunday,” said Xie Zhaonan, director of the Flood Control and Drought Relief Office of Quanzhou.
Affected areas, such as Zhangzhou, Xianmen, Quanzhou, Putian and Fuzhou in Fujian Province, central and southern Taiwan and Guangdong, will experience strong winds and torrential rains, forecasters from Fujian Meteorological Observatory (FMO) said.
By noon yesterday, 1,381 ships had taken shelter at moorings along Fujian’s coast while rescue ships were ready to save those trapped in the storm, whose speed reached 83 kph.
The Fujian Provincial Oceanic and Fisheries Bureau had also recalled 30,000 fishing boats and 162,757 people working onboard by 6 pm yesterday, Xinhua reported.
Linfa weakened into a tropical storm from a level-III tropical storm yesterday morning and gradually moved toward Jinjiang and Fuqing, coastal cities in Fujian, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
The typhoon was also expected to sweep from northwest Taiwan to the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangzhou before heading towards southern Japan, Xinhua said.
However, an official at the Flood Control and Drought Relief Office in Jinjiang told the Global Times that the speed and power of Linfa is relatively mild and not as strong as Saomai, a typhoon in August 2006 that devastated Fujian and Zhejiang provinces and claimed 483 lives on the Chinese mainland.
The official, surnamed Xu, said there wouldn’t be much damage, as “the local government had prepared well and all fishing boats had already returned to shore because the midsummer moratorium period started earlier this month.”