Typhoon Noul leaves more than 750,000 evacuated in southern China

More than 750,000 evacuated in Guangdong

Typhoon Noul made landfall on Sunday in southern China, bringing heavy rainfall and hurricane-force winds to Guangdong province, where authorities evacuated more than 750,000 people, with official figures reporting up to 800,700 displaced. The storm made landfall in the town of Pinghai, in Huidong County, at around 3:50 a.m. local time, and is considered the most powerful typhoon recorded in China so far in 2026.

The National Meteorological Center had issued a red alert that was later downgraded to yellow after the storm weakened upon making landfall. Nevertheless, authorities warned of “extremely intense” precipitation, between 250 and 500 millimeters, in areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Hunan, with a risk of river flooding of between three and eight meters in the coming days.

Flights and trains cancelled, and an emergency budget

Noul’s passage left at least nine people injured in Hong Kong and caused the cancellation of about 700 flights, including several from the city’s airport, as well as nearly 200 trains suspended in the region. Given the magnitude of the storm, the Chinese government allocated an emergency budget of 100 million yuan, equivalent to about 14.8 million U.S. dollars, for the recovery of affected infrastructure and public services.

Noul arrived less than two weeks after Typhoon Bavi, which had left 135 people injured in Taiwan and forced the evacuation of more than 1.7 million people in China’s Zhejiang province. The succession of extreme weather events in just a few weeks has kept authorities in southern and eastern China on alert, as they already assess the cumulative impact on infrastructure, crops, and regional economic activity.