Typhoon Talim leaves behind crushed vehicles, beached whale in southern China

Trees fell on moving vehicles, a whale washed ashore and a freezer full of ice cream floated off in floods as Typhoon Talim made its way across China’s southern provinces on Tuesday.

On Chinese social media, videos showed pedestrians falling over and struggling against the winds, flooded roads and onlookers gathering around the beached whale in the dark.

Talim, the first typhoon to make landfall in China this year, struck the coast late on Monday night in Guangdong province, quickly weakening into a tropical storm. Overnight it moved into Beibu Gulf, and by early Tuesday, it had made a second landfall and moved into southern Guangxi region.

Wind speeds had fallen to a maximum 25 m/s (90 kmh or 56 mph) near Talim’s centre, as of 8 a.m. (0000 GMT), China’s Meteorological Administration said. The storm is expected to further weaken and dissipate as it moves northwesterly into northern Vietnam later on Tuesday, it said.

In Guangdong, after Talim’s passing, firefighters rescued passengers pinned in vehicles by fallen tree branches as they cleared roadblocks and assisted other motorists to safety, according to state media.

Nearly 230,000 people in Guangdong were evacuated on Monday before the storm struck, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Local authorities in Guangdong had also ordered the closure of 68 coastal tourist destinations, called back 2,702 fishing vessels and ordered 8,262 fish-farming workers to be evacuated ashore, Xinhua said.

In Guangxi’s Nanning city, state media reported 35 passenger train services have been disrupted and 26 flights cancelled since Monday. In Hainan, an island province to the south of Guangdong, railway services were gradually being restored on Tuesday morning after being suspended the previous day.

The effects of the typhoon were felt more then 1,000 km to the northeast in Fuzhou city in Fujian province. Residents there spoke of counting their blessings for being safe after vehicles, furniture and household appliances were washed away or damaged by flash floods, according to a video shared on social media.