Police officers from Baoying County Public Security Bureau in Yangzhou city, East China's Jiangsu Province, help fasten a cargo ship that has been docked to harbor on July 27, 2021. Photo: VCG

East China's Jiangsu and Anhui provinces have escalated their storm and flood warnings Tuesday as Typhoon In-Fa moves to the northwest. 

Over 390,000 people have been relocated and all kinds of precautions have been taken as Typhoon In-Fa moved forward to East China's Jiangsu Province on Tuesday. 

As of 6 pm on Tuesday, the province issued a yellow warning for the Jiangsu section of Shuiyang River, where the water rose to 11.8 meters, 1.3 meters above the warning level.

According to Jiangsu's meteorological observatory, the center of the typhoon had moved into Liyang city in Jiangsu by 9 am on Tuesday, after making landfall for the second time in Zhejiang Province on Monday. 

The storm packed up the biggest gales of 20 meters per second near its center as it proceeded to the northwest with a speed of about 10 km per hour. 

The observatory upgraded its storm warning to yellow and predicted that heavy rainfall of over 50 millimeters during a six-hour period is expected in a dozen cities within the province including Nanjing, Nantong and Changzhou in the next 24 hours. 

As of 10 am on Tuesday, a total of 394,819 people around the province had been relocated, 19,654 boats had laid at anchor in the harbor, and 14,205 outdoor advertisements with hazards had been removed, according to the Water Resources Department of Jiangsu Province. 

The province issued a red warning for the Jiangsu section of Taipu River at 8:30 am on Tuesday when the water level rose to 4.36 meters, 0.66 meters above the warning level. 

China's Ministry of Water Resources predicted on Tuesday that as Typhoon In-Fa combines with cold air from the north as it moves northwest, most water in the middle and lower reaches of Huaihe River Basin, lower reaches of the Yellow River basin and Haihe river basin will be influenced. In those affected areas, some rivers will be seriously flooded, and water levels of some river sections will rise beyond the warning level, possibly exceeding the guaranteed level. 

Meanwhile, the Wuhu Bureau of Hydrology and Water Resources in Anhui Province escalated its warnings for flooding at around 3 pm on Tuesday, predicting that Xuanzhou district and Langxi county in Xuancheng city, will be affected. 

As In-Fa moved away from Zhejiang, the provincial meteorological observatory lifted its typhoon warnings by 5 pm on Tuesday, and will release no more typhoon notices. 

Global Times