Heavy rainstorms brought by Typhoon Saomai will hit the coastal
and southern parts of east China's Zhejiang Province, the provincial
meteorological observatory has forecast.
Heavy rains will hit Wenzhou, Taizhou, Ningbo and the eastern
part of Lishui in Zhejiang from Wednesday night till Friday, with
winds gusting 70 to 120 km per hour, said the observatory.
The center of Saomai, the name of the planet Venus in
Vietnamese, was located at sea 1,000 km east-southeast of Wenzhou,
with wind speeds of up to 144 km per hour at 5:00 AM Wednesday.
The typhoon is still gathering strength and its center is moving
northwest at a speed of 25 to 30 km per hour, said the
observatory.
The observatory warned of possible landslides and mud-rock flows
in the mountainous areas of the province and advised all vessels to
return immediately to harbor.
Typhoon Saomai, the eighth to hit China this year, is expected
to make landfall Thursday afternoon or night between central
Zhejiang and the northern coastal area of neighboring Fujian Province.
Another tropical storm, Bopha, 1,000 km behind Saomai, is moving
westward toward China at a speed of 20 km per hour, according to
the local meteorological observatory of Fujian.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2006)