Southern China faces torrential rain, flood risk after Typhoon Noul hits land

Typhoon Noul will dump heavy to torrential rains across much of southern China for two days, authorities said, after sweeping the province of Guangdong and neighbouring Hong Kong with gale-force winds, following landfall on Sunday.

China declared its highest alert for flash floods (amber) in several provinces as the year's strongest typhoon forced the relocation of more than 700,000 people in Guangdong, authorities said.

The year's 12th tropical cyclone and China's third this month, Noul, which means the glow of sunrise or sunset in Korean, struck the coast of Huidong county at about 3:50 a.m., provincial officials said.

It is expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain to nearby provinces such as Jiangxi and Hunan as it moves inland, state broadcaster CCTV said, with the rains likely to persist until Tuesday.

Extremely heavy to exceptional downpours are expected to lash some areas including the province of Fujian, as the National Meteorological Centre forecast heavy to torrential rain from Sunday until Monday morning across much of China's south.

Authorities urged local governments to pay special attention to flood-prone areas such as zones of mountains and rivers, building sites, valleys, and bridges.

The typhoon is weakening as it moves inland, Hong Kong's Observatory said, though southwesterly gales pounded parts of the Asian financial hub, where authorities downgraded the typhoon signal to No. 3 from No. 8 by afternoon.

Overnight, the storm had passed within 80 km (50 miles) of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong airport authorities said flights will gradually begin resuming on Sunday afternoon, after having been mostly suspended for more than 12 hours.