Shipping services resume in S China's Qiongzhou Strait

• Source: Xinhua
• [16:38 September 30 2009]
• Comments

Shipping services resumed in south China's Qiongzhou Strait Wednesday noon, after a 52-hour suspension due to Typhoon Kestana.

Full services began at 11:40 a.m., the Haikou Maritime Affairs Bureau said.

Passenger craft at risk in gales were forced to suspend service at 7:30 a.m. Monday, and eight hours later, the strait was closed to shipping as the typhoon approached.

Nearly 300 vehicles had been stranded at the port waiting for the ferries.

Kestana made landfall in Vietnam at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, before it weakened to a tropical depression Wednesday morning and moved westward, the National Meteorological Center said.

It has unleashed a heavy downpour in south and east China's provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan since Monday.

More than 480,000 people were affected in 13 cities and counties in Hainan and 282 houses collapsed.