Over 100,000 evacuated as Typhoon Cempaka lands in China's Guangdong

GUANGZHOU, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Over 105,000 people in south China's Guangdong Province have been evacuated to safety over the past days as the province braced for Typhoon Cempaka.

Typhoon Cempaka, the seventh typhoon this year, made landfall in the coastal area of Guangdong Province on Tuesday night, bringing strong winds and heavy rains. Cempaka is the first typhoon to hit the Chinese coast this year.

Local authorities ordered the closure of 57 coastal tourist destinations, called back 36,280 fishing vessels and asked 16,243 fish-farming workers to be evacuated ashore, according to the provincial emergency management department.

Cempaka weakened into a tropical depression on Wednesday morning and the province ended its Level III typhoon emergency response starting 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Torrential rains brought about by the typhoon battered the southern part of the Pearl River Delta and the western part of Guangdong on Wednesday. Heavy rains are forecast to continue in west Guangdong on Thursday, raising the risk of landslides and mudslides in the mountainous regions, according to the provincial meteorological authorities.

Typhoon In-Fa, the sixth typhoon this year, is strengthening and could develop into a super typhoon, according to the National Meteorological Center. It is expected to land somewhere between the northern part of Zhejiang Province and the northern part of Fujian Province sometime from Saturday night to the daytime on Sunday.