One million people have to be relocated after Typhoon Yagi makes landfall twice in southern China

HONG KONG (AP) — A powerful typhoon made landfall in southern China twice Friday after sweeping ashore south of Hong Kong, bringing life to a standstill in much of the region and forcing about a million people in the south of the country to flee their homes.

Hainan provincial weather service said Yagi, which had previously had winds of up to 245 km/h near its center, made landfall in the city of Wenchang on the tropical resort island at around 4:20 p.m.

China's national meteorological authorities said Yagi was the strongest autumn typhoon to ever hit China. It made landfall for the second time on Friday evening in Xuwen county in neighboring Guangdong province.

Before the landing in the afternoon, nearly 420,000 residents were relocated in Hainan, as well as more than half a million people in Guangdong, state media reported.

The storm brought heavy rains to much of Hainan and caused power outages in some areas. Strong winds shook the province's famous coconut trees. People erected sandbags outside their buildings to protect them from possible flooding and reinforced their windows with tape, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

State media reported that classes, work, transport and businesses had already been suspended in parts of the province on Wednesday evening. Some tourist attractions were closed and all flights at three airports on the island were expected to be suspended on Friday.

State broadcaster CCTV said the city of Qinzhou in the Guangxi region had also issued an emergency warning to ward off the typhoon. Yagi is expected to make landfall again on Saturday afternoon somewhere between the city of Fangchenggang and the coast of northern Vietnam, it said. In the city of Beihai, work, classes, shops and traffic were suspended on Friday, according to local media.

Stock exchange trading, banking services and schools were suspended in Hong Kong on Friday after the city's meteorological department issued a level 8 typhoon signal for Yagi, the third highest warning level in the city's weather system.

Yagi forced over 270 people to seek refuge in temporary government shelters and led to the cancellation of over 100 flights in the city. Nine people were injured and treated in hospitals. Heavy rain and strong winds caused dozens of trees to fall.

Yagi was a tropical storm when it moved from the northwestern Philippines into the South China Sea on Wednesday. At least 16 people were killed and 17 others are missing, most of them due to landslides and widespread flooding. More than two million people in the northern and central provinces were affected by the explosion.

In the Philippine provinces, more than 47,600 people had to leave their homes. Classes, work, ferry connections between the islands and domestic flights were interrupted for days, even in the densely populated capital region in the greater Manila area.

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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.