The Central Meteorological Observatory continued a blue typhoon warning at 6 a.m. today. At 5 a.m., the center of the 19th typhoon of the year, 'Sandalwood' (tropical storm), was about 165 km west-southwest of Beihai City, Guangxi, on the Beibu Gulf, with max sustained winds of 8 (18 m/s), min central pressure 992 hPa, and a radius of 100-150 km for gale-force winds. 'Sandalwood' is expected to hover with little movement over the Beibu Gulf first, then from the evening of the 23rd move northeast to north at 5-10 km/h, gradually intensifying to a strong tropical storm (10-11, 25-30 m/s), and gradually approach the coast from Guangxi to the west side of the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong.
Affected by 'Sandalwood,' the Zuo River saw its first 2026 flood, and Guangxi raised flood-response levels in multiple areas. At 6:50 a.m. on the 23rd, the Chongzuo hydrological station on the Zuo River, a tributary of the Yu River in Guangxi, rose to warning level (101.20 m), with corresponding flow 6,720 m³/s; per the major-river flood numbering rules, this flood is numbered 'Zuo River 2026 No.1 Flood.'
The Ministry of Water Resources dispatched two working groups to Guangxi to guide typhoon, rainstorm, and flood prevention, urging localities to strengthen water-project dispatch and implement flood-defense measures to ensure people's safety. Given that the Guangxi Hydrology Center issued a red flood warning at 0:00 on the 23rd, the autonomous-region flood-control headquarters decided at 4:00 on the 23rd to raise the flood and typhoon (including geological-disaster) emergency response for Fangchenggang and Chongzuo from Level III to Level II. Simultaneously, the Guangxi Water Resources Department raised the flood-defense emergency response for Chongzuo from Level III to Level II from 0:00 on the 23rd.
Additionally, the Beihai Meteorological Observatory in Guangxi raised its typhoon warning from Level IV to III at 22:10 on the 22nd; per the Beihai flood-control emergency plan, it decided from 22:30 on the 22nd to raise Beihai's flood and typhoon emergency response from Level IV to III. Nanning, as the Yong River's Nanning hydrological station level is about to reach the precautionary level (69.4 m), decided at 6:00 on the 23rd to launch Nanning's Yu River flood-control Level IV emergency response.
