Beijing, Jul 31 (EFE).- Authorities and residents in Beijing and other northern Chinese regions remain alert to the risk of flooding due to intense and constant rains, which caused the evacuation of more than 31,000 people in the capital.
The effects of Typhoon Doksuri, which battered southern and central China last week, have prompted forecasters to forecast that Beijing and northern China will experience the heaviest rains in more than a decade these days, state newspaper Global Times Global reported.
Doksuri made landfall Friday morning on the coast of the city of Jinjiang in the southeastern province of Fujian, with a maximum wind speed of 155 kmph to gradually weaken over the weekend and as it moved northward.
The National Meteorological Center of China maintained the red alert for storms Sunday, the highest in the four-level system, since the provinces and regions near Beijing will be affected in the coming days.
As of 11pm on Saturday, 31,338 people in Beijing had been moved to safety, 4,069 construction sites were halted and all tourist sites and rural houses were closed, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
From 8pm (12:00 GMT) on Saturday to 8pm (12:00 GMT) on Sunday, the average accumulated precipitation in Beijing was 39.1 mm, while the record for the area was registered by the town of Xingtai, in the northern province Hebei and located about 400 kilometers from the capital, with 538 millimeters.
The county’s weather ministry raised the alert for floods Sunday in Beijing, Hebei and the northeastern city of Tianjin. Showers are expected to continue through Wednesday morning.
Doksuri became the strongest typhoon to hit China this year, and also the second strongest to hit Fujian since records exist, the Global Times reported.
Last week, at least one person was killed and thousands of homes were without power as a typhoon passed through Taiwan, bringing strong winds and rain to the south and east of the island.
The typhoon had already left at least 14 dead and more than 300,000 homeless in the Philippines, a country it hit before heading to Taiwan. EFE
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