Story highlights
Winds from Typhoon Usagi drop but still register 115 mph
More than 80,000 people have been evacuated from Fujian Province
Some shipping to Taiwan and along the coast has been suspended
Landfall is expected Sunday or Monday
Typhoon Usagi had Hong Kong and China’s Pearl River Delta in its predicted path Sunday.
At 9 a.m. Sunday (9 p.m. Saturday ET), Usagi was about 242 miles east of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Observatory said. It was expected to move west-northwest at about 11 miles per hour.
The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said the storm had sustained winds of 115 mph. That was a drop from the 162 mph recorded on Friday, but Chinese authorities were bracing for major effects from landfall expected Sunday or Monday to the east of densely populated Hong Kong.
Fujian Province evacuated more than 80,000 people and deployed more than 50,000 disaster-relief personnel, state news agency Xinhua reported. Evacuations also took place in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, state-run news agency Xinhua said.
The news agency said some shipping along the coast and between Taiwan and the mainland had been halted. More than 44,000 fishing boats had been ordered into port.
CNN’s Michael Martinez, Jethro Mullen and Todd Borek contributed to this report.