With the looming threat of Typhoon Prapiroon south China's
island province Hainan on Wednesday suspended all passenger
ferry services across the Qiongzhou Strait which links the island
with the mainland.
At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday ferry services were suspended and some
350 vessels entered typhoon-proof berths in the port of Haikou,
capital of Hainan Province.
And for reasons of safety Chinese railway authorities suspended
Thursday's service from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, to the island province of Hainan.
In addition all fishing vessels from Hainan have been ordered to
return to harbor.
The provincial fishery department said Wednesday that most
vessels were safely in port. More than 200 boats were moored in
Sanya and Yulin on Wednesday, a fishery official said. If the storm
gained strength the vessels at Sanya harbor would move to better
shelter at Yulin, the official added.
Prapiroon is expected to affect Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou bringing with it 100-180 millimeters
of rain, said Wang Bangzhong, an official with the Chinese Central
Meteorological Station.
Wang predicted August would see another five or six tropical
storms form in the waters around the South China Sea but perhaps
only two or three would make landfall.
Prapiroon killed five people when it crossed the northern
Philippines earlier in the week.
Hainan and Guangdong Provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region, all in south China, have relocated 65,000 people and
recalled 53,200 vessels by Wednesday noon.
Prapiroon, which means Rain God in Thai, formed in the South
China Sea and strengthened into a typhoon on Wednesday noon. It’s
expected to lash south China for three-four days, according to the
Chinese Central Meteorological Station.
At 5:00 p.m. Wednesday it was located 19.3 degrees north and
114.1 degrees east which is 340 kilometers from Guangdong's
Yangjiang city. It was carrying winds of up to 119 kilometers per
hour as it moved northwestward.
China being hit by more typhoons and tropical rainstorms this
year was in part due to the warming ocean current in the northwest
Pacific and high temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, said
Wang.
The year's first typhoon, Chanchu, struck on May 18, which is at
least 40 days earlier than normal. Prapiroon is the sixth typhoon
to hit China this year. The fifth, Kaemi, in late July claimed 35
lives including six at a military barracks in east China's Jiangxi
Province.
The forth typhoon, Bilis, lashed south and east China killing
612 people in southern China in mid July.
(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2006)