The fourth tropical storm of the year Haima made landfall over the coast of the southern Guangdong Province on June 23.

Tropical storm Haima made landfall over the coast of the southern Guangdong Province on Thursday morning, packing strong winds and unleashing torrential rains, meteorological authorities said.

Haima, the fourth storm to hit China this year, landed at the coast between dianbai and yangxi counties at 10:10 a.m., packing force eight gales near its center.

The storm is forecast to move west or northwest at 15 km per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 20 meters per second near the center, the National Meteorological Center said in the latest report.

Heavy to torrential rains are reported in Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the center said. Rainfall had reached 60 to 120 millimeters in parts of the island province of Hainan and more than 100 millimeters in Guangdong Province.P The authorities also warned of landslides and other geological disasters in areas hit by the storm.

Along Qiongzhou Strait, which lies between Hainan and Guangdong, operators of passenger ships were ordered to suspend boat trips on Wednesday. Flights were also canceled at Meilan International Airport in Haikou, capital city of Hainan.

Meanwhile, another storm is moving closer to China's southeast coast, according to provincial meteorological authorities of Fujian and Zhejiang. Meari, packing winds of 18 meters per second near the center, was located over the western Pacific about 1,400 kilometers and 1,510 kilometers southeast to Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian, and Wenzhou, a port city of Zhejiang on Thursday morning.

Meari is forecast to move towards Taiwan's east coast at 25 km per hour, and to make landfall over the southeastern part of the East China Sea between Friday night and Saturday morning, packing winds of about 37 meters per second near the center.

Zhejiang provincial meteorological administration Thursday morning said Meari will bring heavy rain and downpours to coastal areas and islands of Zhejiang from Friday to Sunday, packing strong winds of about 33 meters per second with sea waves reaching 11.5 meters in height along the coast and 17 meters further out at sea.

Rains have battered most parts of southern China over the past few days.

Rain-triggered floods that have swept south China since early this month have left 175 dead and 86 missing so far, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Monday.

The disasters have affected 36.57 million people and left 1.64 million displaced in a score of provinces and regions, the ministry has said. The floods have caused direct economic losses of 35 billion yuan (5.41 billion U.S. dollars).

In southwest Guizhou Province, disaster relief authorities on Thursday reported that a rain-triggered mud flow killed three people and one remains missing. More than 1,000 local residents have been evacuated over the past two days.

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