BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- East China is bracing for typhoon Morakot's approach after it slammed into Taiwan Friday night.

    Weather forecasters said late Saturday Morakot was likely to land on the coast from Cangnan, Zhejiang province, to Xiapu, neighboring Fujian province, between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday.

Affected by typhoon "Morakot", strong tides surge on the Qiantang River in Haining, a city of east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 8, 2009. ((Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Although the typhoon this year is expected to weaken to a tropical storm before it arrives in the Chinese mainland, it was packing winds of 137 kilometers an hour at 7 a.m. Saturday and churning northwestwards at a speed of 15 to 20 kilometers an hour.

    It has already unleashed torrential rain in Fujian where, at five sites, water levels have been recorded at 0.02 to 0.66 meters above warning levels.

Affected by typhoon "Morakot", strong tides surge on the Qiantang River in Haining, a city of east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 8, 2009. ((Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    The earlier tropical storm Goni has also wreaked havoc in South China Sea, leaving as many as 156 fishermen and crew members from Cambodia, Vietnam and China missing at once.

    Chinese maritime authorities had rescued 146 by 6 p.m. and the remaining 10 from China were still missing.

    PREPARATION IN FUJIAN

    More than 480,000 people in Fujian have been evacuated and its Zherong County received more than 300 mm of precipitation on Saturday afternoon.

    In Luoyuan county of Fuzhou city, Fujian's capital, people stayed at home during the weekend and roads were almost empty. Fewer sellers appeared in the county's vegetable market.

Fishing boats moor at a port to avoid the approaching Typhoon Morakot in Jinjiang, southeast China's Fujian Province, Aug. 8, 2009. (Xinhua/Xiang Kailai) Photo Gallery>>>

    "The fields were flooded," said Li Sailian, a vegetable seller.

    "Strong winds broke the ropes tying down the horsebeans, and the crown daisies (chrysanthemum greens) were destroyed," she said.

    Li brought all her available stock to the market, fearing the storm would destroy it completely.

    In downtown Fuzhou, where several big trees have already been toppled by gale-force winds, people were rushing to supermarkets for necessities before the typhoon arrived.

    All flights from Saturday noon onwards at the airport in Fuzhou were cancelled, leaving more than 120 passengers stranded. Airport staff were helping with refunds.

    Seventeen of the 312 flights to and from the airport in coastal Xiamen city were cancelled, most of which were heading to Anhui, Guangdong and Taiwan.

    In Putian City, also in Fujian, all scenic sites and ports have been closed and school classes suspended. A team of 26,222 people has been formed and equipped with flood-control materials, said Huang Dongzhou, director of the city's flood control office.

    All of the city's 7,168 fishing ships have returned to harbor, Huang said.

    The province's Ningde city is strengthening its defences to bear the brunt of Morakot, local meteorological authorities said.

    People there are also reinforcing reservoirs with bricks and stones. Water in the city's 20 major reservoirs is only at 54 percent of their combined capacity, so officials with the flood control office said they think the rainfall will help with drought relief, as long as proper measures are taken to ensure safety.

    Residents are also busy reinforcing their own houses.

    Chen Kongsheng, a 61-year-old man, has attached four large rocks to the girders of his house, so that the typhoon "won't tear off his roof".

    About 118,000 people in the city have been evacuated, said Chen Rongkai, Communist Party chief of the city.

    Ningde has readied 103 rescue boats, 15 rafts and 8,300 life jackets to help people affected by the typhoon.

    EFFORTS AND TROUBLES ELSEWHERE

    In adjacent Zhejiang Province, rainfall exceeded 50 millimetres on 6.8 percent of the province's land on Friday night. The highest reading was 110 millimetres in Cangnan county bordering Fujian.

    An expressway from Wenzhou of Zhejiang to Fujian was closed for 12 kilometers, while another from Hangzhou to Anhui Province was cut by landslides.

    Power supply to 80 villages was also cut. Nearly 500,000 residents and tourists in danger areas had been evacuated by 9 p.m. and the province has called nearly 30,000 ships back to harbor.

    More than 50,000 soldiers were prepared for emergencies in Zhejiang, said the local government.

    Shanghai was put on high alert and the World Expo venue is being protected around the clock.

An 80-year-old man is evacuated in Cangnan County, east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 8, 2009. The province has evacuated around 317,000 people to avoid the approaching Typhoon Morakot so far. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang) Photo Gallery>>>

    More than 80 foreign ships were delayed or had their voyages cancelled.

    "We are unlikely to resume if the typhoon moves northwestwards," said the captain of a Japanese cargo ship, which was scheduled to sail for Japan Saturday at noon.

    In addition, more than 140 flights in Shanghai had been delayed by about 10 p.m..

    Anhui issued its first typhoon warning this year, and advised residents to stay indoors.

    East China's Shandong province has also warned local governments to take measures beforehand to reduce losses from extreme weather.

    Morakot, which means "emerald" in Thai, is the eighth storm to hit China this year. It landed in Hualien of Taiwan at 11:45 p.m. Friday, and left at least six people dead or missing. A further 12 were injured. Morakot also overturned cars and cut power supplies.

    WAVE ALERT LEVEL RAISED

The urban area of Linbian Township in Pingtung County of southeast China's Taiwan, is flooded Aug. 8, 2009, because of heavy rainfall brought by typhoon "Morakot". (Xinhua/Wu Ching-teng) Photo Gallery>>>

    On Saturday afternoon, the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center upgraded its alert level for both stormy tide and sea wave from "orange" to "red", the highest level.

    The center said as a result of Typhoon Morakot, the stormy tide along the coast of Zhejiang Province and northern part of Fujian Province would be 0.5 meters to 1.8 meters high until Sunday afternoon.

    The sea in southern part of the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait will be very rough, with monster waves as high as eight meters, the center warned.

    Other coastal areas from Shanghai to Guangdong Province will all experience abnormally high waves, from 2.5 meters to six meters high, it said.

    China adopts a four-grade warning system for stormy tide, tsunami, sea ice and sea wave, which uses four colors (red, orange, yellow and blue) to indicate different levels of emergency.