China braces for Tropical Storm Fengshen by Alex Deakin
Having weakened into a tropical storm, China is now bracing itself for the arrival of Fengshen, which is expected to hit the country’s eastern coast on Wednesday. The storm was a typhoon when it lashed the Philippines over the weekend, with wind speeds gusting up to 120mph (195kph).
Fengshen was downgraded from a typhoon late on Monday, with the storm packing winds of around 74 mph (119 kph) on Tuesday. Torrential downpours have been hitting the southern provinces since the start of the wet season at the end of May, killing at least 175 people in southern China since January. There is concern that further rain in the eastern province of Anhui could exacerbate the problems caused by the floods so far.
China is currently in a brief period of respite, with light winds and scattered showers across much of the country. However the cloud is thickening and over the next 12 hours the storm will bring heavy rain and stronger winds.
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