An orange wave warning for Typhoon Soulik was raised to red, the highest level, on Friday afternoon, according to the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center.

From Friday night to Saturday daytime, Soulik is expected to whip up sea waves as high as 11 meters in the southern part of the East China Sea and in waters near the Diaoyu Islands.

It is also expected to create waves up to 9 meters high in the Taiwan Strait, as well as waves of 4 to 6 meters near east China's Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

Soulik is moving toward waters east of Taiwan, as well as Fujian and Zhejiang, and is expected to hit or pass waters near Taiwan late Friday or early Saturday morning before landing on the mainland on Saturday.

The center also forecast up to 220 cm of precipitation from Friday to Saturday afternoon in coastal areas in Zhejiang and Fujian.

The center urged local government departments to strengthen protection for local fishing industries and patrol levees for potential risks.

China uses a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

As of Friday afternoon, authorities in Fujian have ordered 26,700fishing vessels to return to port to take shelter from the wind. Some 7,400 old people, women and children living on fishing rafts, and 26,500 workers on fishing vessels have been evacuated, according to the provincial department of ocean and fisheries.

About 1,200 soldiers have been prepared to work on possible disaster-relief jobs.

On Saturday, 31 passenger trains that connect Wenzhou and Fuzhou, or Fuzhou and Xiamen, will be suspended for fear of possible damages from Soulik, said local railway authorities.

Meanwhile, the flood control headquarters of Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province said 31,469 people have been relocated since Thursday in preparation for the typhoon, adding that more than 9,566 ships have been ordered back to port.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, Zhejiang issued a Level-II emergency response regarding Soulik, according to the provincial flood control headquarters.

Apart from Zhejiang and Fujian, the municipality of Shanghai, and provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan and Hubei, have been asked to strengthen monitoring, issue early warnings, relocate residents in threatened areas, recall fishing boats and distribute disaster relief supplies in a timely fashion.

Also on Friday, the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued an urgent circular calling for emergency health measures in natural disasters to prevent post-disaster epidemics.

Noting that many parts of the country have entered the flood season with rainstorms leading to flood and landslide in several regions, the circular urged local health departments to pay equal attention to preparations, relief work and post-disaster reconstruction.

In southwest China's Sichuan Province, continuous and severe downpours left more than 30 people dead and over 160 people missing from Monday morning to Thursday, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

The circular called for post-disaster health risk evaluations, stressing focus on sterilization of drinking water, prevention of food-related diseases and proper disposal of defecates.

According to the circular, local health departments should organize emergency drills targeting frequent disasters within their jurisdictions, prepare expert teams and reserves of medicines and relief materials as well as provide psychological consultations to disaster-affected locals.

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