China renews orange alert for Typhoon Nepartak

China renewed an orange alert for extreme weather as Typhoon Nepartak made landfall early on Friday in eastern Taiwan, bringing strong gusts and downpours to the area.

Nepartak, the first typhoon of the year, landed at 5:50 a.m. in Taitung, packing winds of up to 55 meters per second, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.

The NMC forecast that the typhoon would move northwest at a speed of up to 20 km per hour before dying down.

Nepartak will continue to bring gales and torrential rain to coastal regions of Fujian and Zhejiang from Friday to Saturday, it said.

China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

(APD)