Typhoon Matmo made landfall in southern China on Sunday after disrupting transportation and forcing more than 151,000 evacuations and raising fears of flooding, the authorities said.
As Matmo moved through the South China Sea on Sunday morning, it had maximum sustained winds of 104 miles per hour, equivalent to those of a Category 2 storm in the Atlantic, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
The storm made landfall in Guangdong Province on Sunday afternoon and was expected to gradually weaken while moving inland toward Guangxi Province. Forecasters warned that the storm could dump up to 10 to 12 inches in parts of the region through Monday afternoon, increasing the risk of flooding.
The southern provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi are home to nearly 180 million people, and nearby Hainan Province is a resort island the size of Maryland. Matmo is hitting China during an annual spree of shopping and travel built around China’s Oct. 1 National Day celebrations.
The storm prompted the Chinese authorities to issue a red alert, the highest level in a four-tier weather warning system for typhoons, as it approached China’s southern coast.
As of 8 p.m. Saturday the authorities in Guangdong had evacuated more than 151,000 people, the state-run China Central Television reported.
In Guangdong, officials closed expressways in the city of Zhanjiang and suspended some ferry services to Hong Kong, a Chinese territory east of Guangdong.
In Hainan, the government has suspended classes and some transportation. About 60 flights to and from the international airport serving the island had been canceled as of early Sunday afternoon, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.
And in Guangxi, the authorities closed some tourist sites and evacuated tens of thousands of visitors.
The storm could also bring heavy rain, strong winds and potential flooding to parts of northern Vietnam late Sunday, the country’s meteorological service said.
Last week, Matmo tore through Luzon, the most populous island in the Philippines, as it forced thousands to leave a region still reeling from a deadly 6.9-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 72 people and injured about 300 others.
Matmo is the second major storm to threaten the area in nearly two weeks. At least 18 people were killed and dozens of others injured when Typhoon Ragasa blew through the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China in late September. The authorities in Guangdong Province evacuated more than one million people.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
Amy Chang Chien is a reporter and researcher for The Times in Taipei, covering Taiwan and China.
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