The southern Chinese city of Sanya, renowned for seafront resorts and sandy beaches, has closed tourist attractions, shuttered businesses and suspended public transport as it braced for an intensifying Typhoon Kajiki.
The tropical cyclone was about 200km southeast of Sanya on the island province of Hainan at 9am yesterday, the National Meteorological Center said.
Sanya issued a red typhoon alert yesterday morning – the highest in China’s colour-coded warning system – and raised its emergency response to the most severe level, showed posts on the local government’s Wechat account.
City officials convened a meeting on Saturday evening, urging preparation for “worst case scenarios” and stressing the need for heightened vigilance to ensure no fatalities and minimal injuries, the government said.
All classes and construction are suspended, and shopping centres, restaurants and supermarkets were closed from yesterday.
Vessels have also been ordered to cease operating in Sanya’s waters.
Officials said the lifting of restrictions would depend on the storm’s impact.
Meanwhile, authorities in Vietnam planned to evacuate more than 586,000 people from the central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Hue and Danang, where the typhoon is forecast to make landfall early today, state media reported.
Seven coastal provinces in the South-East Asian nation banned boats from leaving shore early yesterday, Tien Phong newspaper reported. — Reuters
