Strong tropical storm lands in south China
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Xinhua, October 4, 2011
Strong tropical storm Nalgae landed on China's southernmost island province of Hainan Tuesday afternoon, forcing evacuation and suspending traffic in and out of the island.
Nalgae came ashore near Dong'ao Township of Wanning City in Hainan Province at 12:30 p.m., packing winds of 90 kilometers per hour at its center, said the Hainan Provincial Meteorological Station.
The station forecast that the tropical storm would move westwards after making landfall, bringing gales and rainfalls to south China's coastal areas.
As of Tuesday noon, the province has evacuated 113,200 people living in unsafe areas, said an official at the province's headquarters for flood control, drought prevention and typhoon precaution.
Ferry and passenger train services in and out of the island have been suspended. Local airports also canceled several flights heading in and out of the province, stranding thousands of passengers.
On Monday, more than 27,000 fishing boats were called back to harbor, as the province issued alert of rough sea conditions.
Downgraded from a strong typhoon Sunday afternoon, Nalgae was the third tropical cyclone to hit Hainan in less than two weeks, after the strong Typhoon Nesat and tropical storm Hitom.
Earlier, four people died, more than 140,000 were evacuated and 2.49 million were affected in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the floods triggered by Nesat, which also toppled houses and damaged farmland, causing direct economic losses of 2.1 billion yuan (328 million U.S. dollars) in the region.
As one of the strongest typhoons to hit Hainan over recent years, Nesat affected 3.77 million people and caused 5.8 billion yuan in economic losses on the island, local authorities said.
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