China launches emergency response to Typhoon Lekima

BEIJING/HANGZHOU - China's disaster relief authority launched a level III emergency response, as Typhoon Lekima is expected to make landfall in the coastal areas of East China's Zhejiang province Saturday, the Ministry of Emergency Management said Thursday.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has dispatched work teams to guide local relief work, the ministry said.

The ministry called on related departments to intensify real-time monitoring of weather changes and issue alerts promptly to reduce damages and ensure people's safety.

Typhoon Lekima, the ninth of the year, strengthened into a super typhoon on Wednesday night and is expected to be downgraded when it lands in Zhejiang, according to the National Meteorological Center (NMC).

Zhejiang province also raised the emergency response to Typhoon Lekima to Level III on Thursday.

The local meteorological department reported on Thursday morning that at 8:00 am the center of Typhoon Lekima was 850 km south by east of Xiangshan county with the maximum speed of 52 meters per second.

The typhoon is expected to move at 15 km per hour to enter the eastern China sea Thursday night and possibly land in Zhejiang on Saturday.

The powerful typhoon will bring strong winds and rainstorms to Taiwan, Shanghai and the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong.

Earlier, the NMC issued a yellow alert for the typhoon. China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue.