China’s Nanning on high alert as Typhoon Maysak triggers reservoir breach

Nanning raised its flood control response to the highest level as rivers and reservoirs swelled after Typhoon Maysak. (EPA Images pic)

BEIJING: Nanning, capital of China’s southwestern Guangxi region, raised its flood control response to the highest level as rivers and reservoirs swelled with the passage of Typhoon Maysak, Chinese state media said on Monday.

Authorities in Nanning, a city of nearly 9 million people, raised the flood control emergency response level to I from III due to “extremely heavy rain”, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

So far, one breach has been reported at a medium-sized reservoir in Nanning’s Hengzhou, and people in the area were being evacuated, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing local authorities.

Maysak made landfall in the southern island province of Hainan on Friday, the first tropical cyclone to reach the Chinese mainland this year.

The storm made its second landfall on Sunday in Vietnam, which shares a border with Guangxi.

Maysak is expected to weaken further as it moves inland, but remnants of the storm and seasonal southwestern rains will continue to bring heavy rainfall to Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, and other areas, according to Chinese meteorologists.