China's Fujian, Guangdong upgrade emergency typhoon response measures

FUZHOU, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the flood control headquarters in east China's Fujian Province upgraded its emergency typhoon response from Level IV to Level III, anticipating the arrival of Typhoon Podul.

Authorities in neighboring Guangdong Province made the same upgrade to their emergency typhoon response at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Typhoon Podul is gaining strength, forecast to bring heavy rains and strong gales to Guangdong from Wednesday to Friday.

Podul -- the 11th named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season -- was located approximately 510 kilometers southeast of Taitung in China's Taiwan region at 5 p.m. Tuesday, with peak wind speeds of 35 meters per second at its center, according to the National Meteorological Center.

As its strength increases, Podul is moving westward at an approximate speed of 25 kilometers per hour. It is forecast to pack winds of up to 50 meters per second, which would class it as a severe typhoon.

It is expected to make landfall on the southeastern coast of Taiwan island around noon on Wednesday. It will then likely pass through the island and enter the Taiwan Strait at a reduced intensity, after which it will make a second landfall somewhere along the strip of coast from Jinjiang in Fujian to Huilai in Guangdong between Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

The flood control headquarters in Fujian and Guangdong have ordered all localities to monitor the typhoon closely, and to deploy emergency response measures to ensure the safety of people and their property.

China has a four-tier emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe.