Super Typhoon Rammasun, 'strongest in 41 years', to hit Southern China on Friday afternoon

Hainain meteorologists say tropical cyclone is the strongest to hit the province since 1973

PUBLISHED : Friday, 18 July, 2014, 7:01am
UPDATED : Friday, 18 July, 2014, 12:21pm
Patrick Boehlerpatrick.boehler@scmp.com
11 Jul 2014




A satellite image of typhoon Rammasun released by the National Meterological Centre.


Southern China's strongest cyclone in decades is expected to hit Hainan and Guangdong provinces packing killer gales of more than 200km/h near its centre, Chinese weather authorities said on Friday morning.

Super Typhoon Rammasun is expected to make landfall Friday afternoon between Qionghai in the southern island province of Hainan and Dianbai in Guangdong Province, the Hainan meteorological bureau said.

Wenchang, a city on the northeastern coast of Hainan with a population of around 600,000, was the most likely site of impact, the bureau said.

The city was already experiencing strong winds of up to 100km/h on Friday morning, it said.

Watch: Typhoon Rammasun hits Hong Kong, southern China, bringing heavy rain, winds

Both China’s National Meterological Centre and the Hong Kong Observatory have classified the tropical cyclone as a “super typhoon”.

This is the first time this year that China has issued a “red” typhoon alert, the highest level of warning.

As of 11am on Friday, the centre of the storm was 400km southwest of Hong Kong and moving southwestward. The T3 warning, indicating strong winds, is in force in the territory.

On early Friday morning, some outbound flights from Hong Kong's International Airport suffered delays of a few hours, and a few flights to Hainan, Guangdong and Southeast Asian destinations were cancelled. Flight times began to return to normal in mid morning.


A view in Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, on early Friday morning shared by the Hainan Daily. Photo: Weibo

The Meilan International Airport in Hainan's capital city of Haikou said it cancelled 140 flights on Thursday and Friday, leaving thousands of passengers grounded.

China Southern Airlines cancelled all its flights to Haikou and Zhanjiang and some flights to Sanya on Friday, it said on its Weibo microblog.

In Sanya, Hainan’s southern port city, 675 ships have returned to harbour in anticipation of Rammasun making landfall, their local government website said.

China’s state meteorologists expect the typhoon to hit the island’s northeast by 5pm on Friday, before moving to Guangdong’s peninsular southwest and southern Guangxi region overnight to Saturday.

On Sunday, Rammasun is expected to end its course in Vietnam’s border areas with China.


A rendering of tropical cyclone Rammasun shared by the Guangdong Meteorological Centre.

Heavy rains and damaging winds are expected to last at least until Saturday across large swaths of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Guizhou.

At least 38 people have been reported killed in the Philippines by Rammasun on Thursday and more than 50,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes and seek shelter from the tropical cyclone.

The typhoon destroyed or damaged 26,000 homes, while cutting electricity supplies to nearly all of Manila, a megacity of more than 12 million people, and surrounding urban areas.

UPDATES:
11:20am Premier Li Keqiang described the typhoon situation as "severe", and told Hainan authorities to put people’s lives first, according to a government statement.

10.29am: Hainan Airlines said its flights to and from Haikou and Sanya on Friday have been cancelled.

10.24am: Winds continue to reach speeds of up to 198km/h, the National Meteorological Centre said. The typhoon is about 140km away from Hainan.

9.51am: Hong Kong International Airport says five inbound flights, three from Haikou and two from Sanya, have been cancelled on Friday. One outbound flight to Sanya and three to Haikou have also been cancelled.
9.43am: Some 140 flights have been cancelled at Haikou international airport on Friday, the airport said in a statement.

9.38am: Some train service has been halted in Hainan on Friday morning, the provincial railway administration said.

9am: Winds have reached speeds of 198km/h. The cyclone is 150km away from the city of Wenchang in Hainan province.

7am: Rammasun is 190km off Hainan's coast and is moving towards the island at a speed of 20km/h, according to the China Meteorological Centre.


The expected path of tropical cyclone Rammasun. Map: National Meterological Centre

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