Typhoon Narra floods southern China; Saudel tracks toward Japan

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- Typhoon Narra triggered record flooding in China's Guangxi region, with state media reporting 54,000 relocations — including more than 15,000 in Chongzuo, where water levels surpassed a 2008 record.
- Narra made landfall as a tropical storm Tuesday evening in Hainan province after lingering over the Beibu Gulf, with heavy rain forecast to persist across Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, and Fujian through Wednesday.
- In Chongzuo, river water reached building rooftops and power lines, prompting authorities to order all businesses and tourist operations to cease and urging evacuated residents not to return to high-risk areas.
- Typhoon Saudel tracked toward southern Japan and northern Taiwan, with Japan's weather agency warning of destructive winds and high seas near Okinawa prefecture.
- Taiwan's government reported one dead and four missing from a separate tropical depression that flooded Tainan and Kaohsiung, where nearly one metre of rain fell in three days — exceeding levels during 2009's devastating Typhoon Morakot.
- Saudel is forecast to pass north of Taiwan late Thursday into Friday and hit Fujian province in southeastern China from late Thursday to early Friday.
Why it matters: Coastal East and Southeast Asian communities are now facing compounding weather emergencies — Narra's record floodwaters have displaced tens of thousands across Guangxi, while Saudel threatens destructive winds across Okinawa, northern Taiwan, and Fujian within 48 hours. Taiwan's Kaohsiung and Tainan are still recovering from a separate depression that already dumped Morakot-comparable rainfall and killed one person.
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