China on alert as typhoon Lekima nears

BEIJING. KAZINFORM China on Thursday issued a yellow alert as Typhoon Lekima, the ninth of the year, is expected to make landfall in the coastal areas of east China's Zhejiang Province Saturday, bringing large-scale rainfall.

Lekimastrengthened into a super typhoon on Wednesday night and is expected to bedowngraded when it lands in Zhejiang, according to the National MeteorologicalCenter, Xinhua reports.

Thepowerful typhoon will bring strong winds and rainstorms to Taiwan, Shanghai andthe provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong.

China has afour-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the mostsevere weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

The StateFlood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has asked local related authoritiesto launch emergency response system and be prepared before the landfall of thetyphoon.

TheMinistry of Emergency Management also warned related departments to intensifyreal-time monitoring of weather changes and issue alerts promptly by means ofthe internet and text messaging.