- Doksuri is expected to land in southern China on Friday
- The typhoon is expected to pass Taiwan and the Philippines
- Doksuri may affect autumn grain harvests in inland China
BEIJING/TAIPEI, July 25 (Portal) – China has urged fishing boats to take shelter and farmers to speed up their harvests, while Taiwan halted annual military drills as super typhoon Doksuri approached East Asia and potentially penetrated deep into China.
Doksuri is likely to be the strongest typhoon to make landfall in China so far this year’s storm season. China narrowly escaped Typhoon Mawar, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record in May, which headed for China but later veered north toward Japan before dissipating.
Nearly 1,000 km (620 miles) in diameter, Doksuri is expected to sweep past sparsely populated islands off the northern tip of the Philippines by midweek, while fierce winds and heavy rains lash northern Taiwan.
Philippine authorities have already raised storm warning levels in the capital region and dozens of northern provinces and have begun evacuating some coastal communities along the storm’s path.
Doksuri is currently reaching peak wind speeds of 138 miles per hour (223 km/h) and will land somewhere between mainland China’s Fujian and Guangdong provinces on Friday, the China National Meteorological Center said on Tuesday.
While Doksuri is expected to lose some power and land as a typhoon, or severe typhoon, it will continue to batter densely populated Chinese cities with torrential rain and strong winds.
Fujian has ordered all offshore fishing boats to find sanctuary at the nearest port by noon Wednesday and instructed farmers to harvest their rice and other mature crops.
Concerned about the autumn grain harvest, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs warned on Monday that doksuri could penetrate deep inland after landing, affecting tall-stemmed crops such as corn and even rice in rural areas.
After the storm is over, plots with no broken stalks should be quickly straightened and waterlogged fields should be drained in time, applying fast-acting fertilizers to speed up crop recovery, the ministry said.
SOME EXERCISES HAVE BEEN CANCELLED
Taiwan on Tuesday canceled some of its annual military drills for safety reasons as authorities ramped up preparations for what they say is the most devastating typhoon to hit the island in nearly four years.
It wasn’t immediately clear how the typhoon might further affect the five-day “Han Kuang” exercise scheduled to take place across the island this week, which will focus on defending the island’s main international airport and keeping sea lanes open in the event of a Chinese blockade.
Beijing has never refrained from using force to take control of the democratically governed island. Taiwan has rejected Beijing’s claims of sovereignty and has vowed to defend its freedom and democracy.
Taiwan’s weather agency issued sea and land warnings for southern Pingtun County, urging communities to prepare for heavy rains and strong winds.
In the southern port city of Kaohsiung, authorities rushed to collect hundreds of floating containers after the container ship Angel sank off Taiwan’s southwest coast last week.
“Taiwan has not seen a typhoon hit the country for more than 1,400 days and therefore I urge all ministries to prepare and make preparations,” Premier Chen Chien-jen said in a post on Facebook.
“I would like to remind citizens not to underestimate the threat of typhoons.”
Reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing and Yimou Lee in Taipei; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Edited by Stephen Coates and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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