BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised its emergency response for flood and typhoon prevention from level III to level II in the Guangdong and Hainan provinces at 3 p.m. Thursday, as Typhoon Yagi approaches.
The eye of Yagi, the 11th typhoon of the year, was located on the sea approximately 540 km southeast of Xuwen County, Guangdong Province, at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Yagi is expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon or evening somewhere between the city of Qionghai in Hainan and Maoming City in Guangdong.
Due to the approaching typhoon, the main section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will be closed temporarily from 9 p.m. Thursday, according to the bridge's emergency rescue headquarters.
Affected by Yagi, parts of Guangdong and Hainan will be pounded by rainstorms from Thursday to Sunday, with daily rainfall likely to reach around 500 mm or more. All childcare institutions, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, and secondary vocational schools in Guangdong's Zhuhai City have been asked to suspend classes, local authorities have said.
China has a four-tier flood-control emergency-response system, with Level I being the most severe response. ■
