Typhoon Kalmaegi hits south China

Typhoon Kalmaegi landed in China's southernmost island province of Hainan on Tuesday morning, killing two people and forcing flight cancellations and boat evacuations.

The typhoon made landfall in Wengtian Township, Wenchang City at a speed of 40 meters per second at 9:40 a.m. It is the fifteenth typhoon to hit China this year.

It also landed in the coastal areas of Xuwen County, Guangdong Province at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the provincial meteorological bureau.

Two people were killed by a falling tree in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A heavy downpour hit the city after the typhoon landed.

More than 290,000 people in Guangxi have been affected by the typhoon, and 25,800 people had been evacuated as of 7 p.m. Tuesday.

More than 33,000 people were trapped by heavy rainstorms on Xinliao Island in Xuwen County where the typhoon landed.

Classes were suspended in some districts of Guangzhou city, and in Haikou, capital of Hainan, school won't resume until Thursday.

Typhoon Kalmaegi is weaker than the super typhoon Rammasun that killed 62 people in July, according to Gao Yuanfu from Mingyue Village, Wengtian Township.

Gao's leg was badly injured in typhoon Rammasun, the strongest typhoon to hit south China in four decades. Gao's family has been living in tents for the past two months as his house was blown away in the last typhoon.

"Our new house has yet to be completed and we are suffering again," said Gao, who is worried most about his harvest.

"It is only half a month till harvest," he said, adding that he will suffer losses again.

More than 20,000 residents have been resettled in 24 temporary settlements since Monday morning, said Zheng Hongyan, Party secretary of the Wengtian township government.

"Although typhoon Kalmaegi is weaker than typhoon Rammasun, the rising sea water is more serious," said Liu Mancang, a shop owner in the provincial city of Haikou. There was 50 cm of water in his shop.

The sea water reached 1.2 meters on Changdi Road in Haikou. In one area, water overflowed into a police station courtyard and swamped several police motorcycles.

Refrigerators, motorcycles, washing machines and computers in supermarkets and shops were seen submerged in water.

"Water is rising too quickly to move them out," said a supermarket owner surnamed Li.

As of Tuesday night, power supplies in more than 1.3 million residential compounds had been affected. In Haikou city, power in more than 245 residential compounds in Haikou had been cut off and three water plants suspended.

More than 200 flights have been canceled due to typhoon Kalmaegi, China's aviation authorities said Tuesday.

Sanya, the country's southernmost coastal resort city in Hainan, saw its airspace traffic capacity decline by up to 75 percent on Tuesday, and the country's air traffic authorities issued a red alert for flight delays.

By 5 p.m., Haikou Meilan International Airport of Hainan had canceled 119 flights and Sanya Phoenix International Airport canceled 110 flights, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Macao, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Nanning airports have also been affected by the tropical storm and airline companies including China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, and Capital Airlines were also affected.

At Guangxi's Nanning International Airport, 30 flights have been canceled as of 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Some 44 trains also suspended services on Tuesday, according to the Nanning Railway Bureau.

Both Guangdong and Hainan provincial governments issued the highest Grade I alerts on Monday for Kalmaegi, which will bring heavy rains to the region in the coming two days.

In Lingao County, more than 4,300 fishing boats have been called back to shore and 19,924 people have been evacuated, according to the county government.

Torrential rains hit many parts of western Guangdong on Tuesday, blowing down trees and causing floods in urban areas. All boat services were suspended across the Qiongzhou Strait.

"Typhoon Rammasun, which landed in Xuwen two months ago, devastated the banana industry," said Zhou Jincong, a local resident, adding typhoon Kalmaegi would further reduce agriculture output this year.