Typhoon Utor Hits South China

Typhoon Utor Hits Guangdong

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The coastal region of south China's Guangdong Province was hit early Friday morning by a strong tropical storm that turned into typhoon Utor, and so far no casualties have been reported.

In a warning issued noon Friday concerning the strong tropical storm, the Central Observatory said a strong breeze to a fresh gale is expected for the Taiwan Strait, the eastern coastal area of China's Hainan Province, and much of Guangdong and coastal parts of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces between Friday noon to Saturday.

The warning also predicts strong gales for the areas swept by the center of the typhoon and coastal region in south China, and rainstorms for Guangdong, eastern part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the southern part of Jiangxi and Hunan provinces.

Experts with the Guangdong provincial observatory said the center of the typhoon was inside Huidong in Guangzhou bringing gales of up to 30 meters per second, or 108 kph, and rainstorms in the southeastern part of Guangdong.


Typhoon Utor Hits Guangdong

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They said the tropical storm is expected to advance northwestward at the speed between 18 to 22 kph, and more storms are expected for southeastern part of the province, the Pearl River Delta and Guangzhou on Friday and Saturday.

Experts with local emergency services explained that typhoon Utor was weakening as it swept across the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean.

Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou canceled some of the flights using such smaller passenger planes like Boeing 737s as scheduled.

Guangdong Province, Thursday, issued an emergency notice putting the whole province on alert for typhoon Utor, which was expected to strike a 200 kilometer stretch of coastline between Shantou and Shenzhen.