Guangdong braced for Usagi

Usagi, the 19th typhoon to hit China this year, made landfall in Shanwei, South China's Guangdong Province at around 7:40 pm on Sunday, said the National Meteorological Center (NMC).

The super typhoon, which packed winds of 45 meters per second at its eye, has made the country's top meteorological authority maintain its highest red alert Sunday evening, as rainstorms are expected to batter parts of Guangdong and Fujian provinces till Monday.

NMC forecast that the storm, one of the most powerful this year, is moving northwest at a speed of 20 to 25 kilometers per hour, with its intensity gradually weakening.

China's maritime authorities also continued to issue red alerts, the highest level of warning for storm tides and waves, as waves as high as nine meters will be brought to the north of the South China Sea till Monday morning. Waves of up to six meters will be seen in the Taiwan Strait and the waters off eastern Guangdong.

Frontier police in Shanwei directed more than 8,000 fishing boats to return to harbor by noon on Sunday.

More than 1,200 local residents in the city have been evacuated to temporary settlements.

Guangdong, a major base for Chinese nuclear power stations, has also initiated emergency response schemes to brace for the typhoon.

Four of the six power generating units at the Dayawan nuclear power base have been ordered to operate at reduced load. Outdoor construction has been prohibited at the Yangjiang and Taishan nuclear plants, said the China General Nuclear Power Group.

Schools in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, and Xiamen, on the eastern coast of neighboring Fujian, called off classes.

Shipping transport between Fujian and Taiwan was suspended ahead of strong winds and downpours.

Hundreds of flights departing from and arriving in the cities of Xiamen, Shantou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Hong Kong and Macao have been canceled on Sunday.

Related storms have already taken out three major power lines in Fujian, cutting off electricity supply to about 170,000 households at 7 am. By noon, there were still 25,000 households suffering power outages.

Before the landfall, two people were killed by a fallen tree in Shantou.