A prompt and efficient weather information system is playing an important role protecting the public from typhoons, an official with the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Bureau said.

"As Guangdong is a frequent victim of typhoons, we have introduced an emergency system of public weather information release," said Yang Qiwei, spokeswoman for the bureau.

Besides traditional weather information release through newspapers, TV, radio and Internet, the bureau has used new techniques to inform the public about the latest developments of any foul weather systems, for example through text messaging.

Starting Friday, a day before Typhoon Prapiroon's landfall in Guangdong, the bureau sent more than 33 million text messages to mobile phone users, of which 1.3 million are in rural areas.

"It is the first time that we have released weather information to the public by sending text messages," Yang said.

"It proved very efficient in helping the public know the latest development of the typhoon and take measures against it, since there are a great number of mobile phone users," Yang said.

Besides text messages, the bureau also received more than 720,000 phone calls asking for typhoon information via its 12121 hotline.

"We also upgraded typhoon information every hour through TV and radio," Yang said.

Prapiroon, which made landfall in western Guangdong, has so far killed 51 people in Guangdong, 9 of which died from a tornado caused by the typhoon. The typhoon caused losses of up to 5.4 billion yuan (US$675 million), sources with the local flood control and drought relief office said.

"Without prompt information through text messaging, the losses would have been worse," Yang said.

According to Yang, the bureau will continue to use the emergency weather information system in the future.

(China Daily August 8, 2006)