China warned that Haikui will bring heavy rains to regions in its south and east as concern lingers about the fading cyclone’s impact on farming with rice prices already soaring.
Weather authorities issued a yellow rain alert Tuesday morning, the third highest warning among its four tiers. Torrential downpours were expected in parts of the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, while Jiangxi and Zhejiang would see heavy rains.
China earlier warned the rain could inundate rice and vegetable crops, a threat that comes as rice shipment curbs by top exporter India and extreme weather tighten supplies globally. Those factors have helped push prices in Asia near the highest level in some 15 years.
Any significant rice output cut in China, the biggest grower and importer, could cause turmoil in an already rattled market.
See: Heavy Rains Threaten China’s Rice Crop in Latest Weather Worry
Haikui battered Taiwan over the weekend with typhoon-strength winds and heavy rain, then weakened as it traveled toward the mainland. Taiwan has lifted its land and sea warnings for Haikui, and electricity has been restored to most of the some 250,000 households that suffered outages.
The Ministry of Agriculture in Taipei estimated the value of losses to agricultural products and private farming facilities at NT$258.2 million ($8.1 million) as of Monday. Some four-fifths of that damage was around the southeastern city of Taitung.
The cyclone is the latest example of extreme weather experienced around the world this summer. In late July and August, dozens of people died in northern areas of China including Beijing due to flooding from a typhoon. Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a probe into flooding at a work site in the southwestern province of Sichuan that killed four people and left dozens missing.
More: China Official’s Call to Save Xi’s City Angers Flood Victims
Haikui caused one death in in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, when a fire truck fell into a river, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. Fuzhou and Jieyang, Guangdong province, closed schools on Tuesday.
China Railway Shanghai Group said it planned to halt 66 routes Tuesday and Wednesday.
--With assistance from Hallie Gu.
(Updates with more details.)
