JUNE 23 (Reuters) — Typhoon Kujira landed in south China’s island province of Hainan Monday evening, bringing heavy rain to the drought-hit island.
The storm landed in the coastal city of Wanning at 18:50 Monday, packing winds of up to 90 kilometers per hour, said the Hainan Meteorological Service.
Kujira weakened into a tropical storm about one hour after its landing in Hainan. It moved northwestward at a speed of 15 km per hour. It is forecast to reach the Beibu Gulf hours later on Tuesday.
Strong gales and heavy rains hit the northern, central and eastern parts of the island province Monday, with the precipitation ranging from 50 mm to 150 mm. Local firefighters on Monday afternoon rescued ten people trapped on the waving fishing boats.
The island province has evacuated more than 40,000 people, and over 20,000 fishing boats in the province have been called back to harbor.
The timely rain is expected to help ease a prolonged severe drought which has affected 30 percent of the tropical island, causing drinking water shortage for 130,000 people and 119 small reservoirs to dry up.
The rainfall, brought by the typhoon formed in the South China Sea, will continue in the region until Tuesday. China’s National Meteorological Center has issued a yellow alert for the typhoon and forecast that rainstorms will hit Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Gansu provinces from Monday to Wednesday.
