Firefighters rescue flood-trapped residents as Typhoon Matmo hits south China

Firefighters have rushed to save trapped residents in Zhanjiang City of south China's Guangdong Province after Typhoon Matmo made landfall in the area.

Matmo, the 21st named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season, made landfall along the eastern coast of Xuwen County, Zhanjiang City in south China's Guangdong Province around 14:50 on Sunday. And the typhoon made its second landfall along the coast of Fangchenggang City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at around 01:10 Monday.

Starting from noon on Sunday, the wind and rain in Zhanjiang began to gradually intensify.

At around 12:00, the local fire department received an call saying that two elderly people were trapped in Chiqian Village of Leizhou City. The firefighters arrived at the village as soon as possible and helped the two elderly people put on raincoats. Then they protected the elderly people from the wind and rain with their bodies. Eventually, they escorted the two elderly onto the fire trucks and transferred them to a safe location.

At noon on Sunday, the roof of a civilian house in Leizhou was blown off by the typhoon, and there were people inside who urgently needed to be evacuated. The firefighters rushed to the scene and found three children. They put raincoats on the children and carried them to a safe area in the howling wind and rain.

Typhoon Matmo is expected to move in a west-northwest direction in the future, bringing heavy rainfall to Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and some other places.

The Central Meteorological Observatory continued to issue a yellow alert for heavy rain and a blue alert for typhoons on Monday morning.

According to the meteorological departments, Typhoon Matmo brought strong winds and rain to areas including western Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Guangxi on Sunday. Although the typhoon is expected to weaken in the future, it will still bring heavy rainfall to Yunnan, Guizhou, and some other provinces. Those regions should remain vigilant against possible secondary disasters caused by heavy rain due to the complex geological conditions.

Firefighters rescue flood-trapped residents as Typhoon Matmo hits south China

The U.S. government has begun a large-scale release of its strategic oil reserves, with the first batch of crude expected to enter the market by the end of this week.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Friday that it has issued a tender to release 86 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This release is part of a broader plan, announced last week, to allocate a total of 172 million barrels from the SPR.

The crude oil will be drawn from three storage sites located in Texas and Louisiana. According to the DOE's tender, participating companies are required to return the borrowed oil to the SPR, along with an additional premium. The DOE said that this approach will both replenish the SPR and help stabilize the oil market.

The move comes after the DOE announced on Wednesday that it would release 172 million barrels over the next 120 days to counter rising oil prices triggered by U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran. The U.S. government also said it plans to replenish about 200 million barrels of strategic reserves within the next year to ensure national energy security.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the SPR held 415.4 million barrels as of March 6.

U.S. to release strategic oil reserves, first batch this week