China maintains top-level alert for typhoon Rammasun

BEIJING, July 19 -- China's meteorological authority on Saturday continued a top-level red alert for super typhoon Rammasun as downpours and gales sweep southern coastal provinces.

Typhoon Rammasun, the ninth in this year and the strongest in decades, made its latest landfall in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwest China at 7:10 a.m. on Saturday and packed gales of up to 48 meters per second, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said in a statement.

Rammasun made its first landfall in Wenchang City in the island province of Hainan on Friday afternoon, and hit Zhanjiang City in south China's Guangdong Province in the evening.

Most of Hainan, areas around Zhanjiang of Guangdong and coastal regions in Guangxi saw precipitation of 200 to 500 mm, according to the NMC.

The observatory continued to issue a red warning for typhoon and an orange warning for rainstorm on Saturday, and forecast strong stormy weather in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi and southwest China's Yunnan from Saturday to Sunday morning.

The typhoon is expected to move at 20 kilometers per hour northwest and run through southern parts of Guangxi before it starts to weaken.

As of Friday night, Rammasun had wreaked havoc across Guangdong and Hainan provinces, killing at least one in Wenchang and forcing more than 20,000 out of their homes in the provincial capital Haikou of Hainan, according to local authorities.

The NMC also forecast moderate to heavy rain in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northeast China and north China from Sunday to Monday. Smog is expected in Beijing, neighboring port city Tianjin and parts of Hebei Province from Saturday to Sunday.

China has a four-color-coded warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.