Typhoon Kammuri slammed into south China's Guangdong Province early
yesterday morning, causing heavy property damage in eastern parts
of the province.
The raging storm that accompanied Kammuri pummelled major cities in
eastern coastal area of Guangdong yesterday, knocking down trees
and billboards in Shantou, Shanwei, Chaoyang and Lufeng, according
to officials at the Guangdong Provincial Headquarters of
Anti-Flooding.
Fifty-six flights were delayed or cancelled at Guangzhou Baiyun
International Airport on Sunday because of the bad weather.
No
deaths or injuries had been reported by yesterday evening.
To
prepare for Kammuri, Guangdong provincial government officials
issued an urgent notice late last week telling local government
departments to keep vessels in local shelters.
Kammuri is the 12th typhoon to strike the Chinese coast this year
and the first to hit Guangdong this year.
Scientists developed a sophisticated observation system earlier
this summer to help them detect storms early on.
The nationwide project, known as GTEX, is one of the key high-tech
research projects launched by the Ministry of Science and
Technology. It will operate in the peak typhoon season from July to
September.
South China's Guangdong Province is prone to typhoons and thus an
appropriate place for research. Nine typhoons slammed into China
last year, causing 231 deaths and 17.6 billion yuan (US$2.1
billion) in losses.
The latest research project will last two years, said He Xiajiang
of the Guangdong Meteorology Observatory, one of the project's
founders. He said the project will help advance theoretical
research on typhoons and provide a more precise forecast
system.
In
the past, observations hinged largely on satellite cloud pictures,
which just provided a brief outline of the typhoon and no data on
the distribution of wind and rain or the internal structure of
typhoons.
The latest experiment involves 300 automatic weather stations with
advanced technologies like Doppler radar and wind profiler.
Observation equipment valued at 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) is
being attached to a moving carrier used to detect typhoons and
analyze the changing wind patterns at close range.
The hope is that the data can be used to develop a more precise
forecasting system, He said.
(China
Daily August 6, 2002)