Typhoon Dujuan makes landfall in east China

Frontier soldiers and officials carry sandbags to fortify banks as the Typhoon Dujuan makes landfall in Putian City, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 29, 2015. Typhoon Dujuan, the 21st typhoon of this year, made landfall in east China's Fujian Province on Tuesday morning. The storm hit the coastal city of Putian at around 8:50 a.m., packing winds of up to 33 meters per second, said the Fujian Meteorological Service. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

FUZHOU, Sept. 29 -- Typhoon Dujuan, the 21st typhoon this year, made landfall in east China's Fujian Province on Tuesday morning.

The storm hit the coastal city of Putian at around 8:50 a.m., packing winds of up to 33 meters per second, according to the Fujian Meteorological Service.

Heavy rain swept Fujian on Tuesday, with precipitation over 200 mm in parts of the province, while all 32,000 fishing boats returned to harbor and around 160,000 people returned to shore the day before.

Weng Yuyao, mayor of Putian, said 10 potentially weak sea walls had been strengthened prior to Dujuan's landfall, and that the city evacuated nearly 20,000 people,.

Emergency workers braved heavy rain to repair a 200-meter section of a sea wall wrecked by gales and waves brought by the typhoon.

At a port in Putian, a Xinhua reporter saw waves rising to about 10 meters in height and nearby parking lots flooded.

More than 600,000 families in Fujian have suffered a blackout and workers are racing to restore the power supply, according to the Fujian branch of the State Grid Corporation.

The airports in the cities of Fuzhou and Jinjiang have canceled 103 flights since Monday. Xiamen Ferry Company also canceled all ferries on Tuesday.

In Fuzhou and the cities of Ningde, Putian and Zhangzhou, schools were suspended. More than 200 high-speed trains to and from Fujian will be suspended.

The typhoon coinciding with high tide caused severe flooding on Monday night and Tuesday morning, said a spokesperson from Xiamen's maritime fishing service.

Dujuan has also brought gales, torrential rain and waves to neighboring Zhejiang Province.

According to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters, more than 320,000 people in eight cities have been evacuated and more than 25,000 ships had returned to harbor by 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

The official level of alert has been heightened as Zhejiang's Qiantang River, a tourist attraction for its high waves, will see its largest tidal bore in years due to record rainfall on Wednesday.

Every year, the soaring waves crash along the banks of the river near the city of Haining. Visitors traditionally watch the natural occurrence on the 18th day of the eighth lunar month, which falls on Wednesday this year.

Some of the sites for watching the tides have been closed for safety reasons, according to the public security bureau of Haining.

In Wenzhou City, schools were suspended on Tuesday.

Dujuan is moving northwest at a weakening speed of 25 km per hour. It is forecast to reach Jiangxi Province at around 10 p.m. on Tuesday.