Southern China evacuates 340,000 as Typhoon Noul nears

Guangdong evacuated more than 340,000 people as Typhoon Noul approached southern China, while airlines canceled flights and authorities moved to blunt the risk from wind, rain and flooding. In southern Guangdong, the count had already passed 20,000 by late Friday, showing how quickly the response widened as the storm strengthened over the South China Sea.

China’s weather authorities said Noul was the 12th typhoon of the year and warned that strong winds and torrential rain could disrupt transport links as the system tracked toward the east coast of Guangdong province. The Hong Kong Observatory said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 130 kph, or 81 mph, near its center, and Hong Kong’s weather authorities issued Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 1 as forecasters watched the storm move closer.

The pressure points were clear. Rail and air services in Guangdong were canceled in some areas, schools were shut, and at least dozens of flights were pulled from schedules as officials tried to move people out of low-lying and exposed areas before the worst weather arrived. A South China news report said Noul threatened 36 airports across southern China, a reminder of how quickly a typhoon can spread from a coastal strike into a transport problem that reaches deep into the region’s logistics network.

Hong Kong’s Observatory said forecasters were considering Signal No. 3, with winds and showers expected to strengthen the next day and the storm expected to come closest late Saturday into Sunday. The combination of evacuation orders, airline disruptions and school closures showed how much state capacity is required to get ahead of a fast-moving storm, especially in a corridor where ports, rail lines and airports sit close to dense population centers and flood-prone ground.