Beijing: Typhoon Sarika, the 21st typhoon of the year, has weakened and on Wednesday made landfall a second time in southern China after it brought gales and downpours to Hainan Province.
Sarika has weakened to become a severe tropical storm. It made landfall a second time in Dongxing City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region today, with maximum winds of 90 km per hour at its eye, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Flights and high-speed trains have returned to normal in Hainan. Flights at Meilan International Airport in Haikou, capital of Hainan, began normal departures and landing last evening. The eastern section of the island's loop high-speed rail line resumed operation this afternoon.
Security checks on the western section are under way. Ferry service across the Qiongzhou Strait between Hainan and Guangdong Province resumed today.
Sarika made landfall in the east of Hainan last morning, packing winds of up to 162 km per hour. Half a million people were evacuated in Hainan. The typhoon caused agricultural losses on the island.
In Qionghai City, 62 villages were flooded and direct losses in its agricultural and fishery sectors reached 570 million yuan (USD 85 million). The storm also damaged 15,000 hectares of cropland in Changjiang Li Autonomous County.
