Two million evacuated as typhoon hits China
Typhoon Wipha slammed into China's densely populated east coast on
Wednesday, sparking the evacuation of around two million people and
threatening the financial hub Shanghai.
The storm made landfall in Zhejiang province overnight with winds up
to 100 miles (160 kilometres) an hour, state media said, and churned
toward Shanghai amid warnings it could be the most destructive typhoon
to hit here in a decade.
The China Meteorological Administration said the typhoon was expected
to move north-northwest, bringing torrential rains to the eastern
provinces of Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian, Jiangsu and the Shanghai
region.
Although the weather was fine in Shanghai early on Wednesday, the
financial metropolis battened down the hatches, closing schools and
advising it could halt trading on the city's stock exchange if the
weather worsened.
It ordered the evacuation of 291,000 people from low-lying areas and
called ships and ferries back to port, according to the Shanghai Daily.
Similar measures have been taken along the eastern seaboard, media
reports said, with at least 1.5 million people evacuated from their
homes in Zhejiang province alone.
Xinhua news agency called the evacuations the largest in the province
since the communist victory in 1949.Just one death has been reported so
far, an unidentified man in Shanghai who was electrocuted on Tuesday as
he stepped into waters that had been electrically charged by a light
box, the Shanghai Daily said.
Xinhua said more than 80 streets in the city were flooded on Tuesday
by advance rains from the typhoon, while nearly 50 flights were delayed
and more than 20 cancelled at its two airports.
Zhang Jiayi, deputy chief of the Shanghai flood control headquarters,
was quoted by the agency on Tuesday as saying the city of 17 million was
"facing its most severe test in decades".
However, further information on the toll wrought by the storm was
scarce on Wednesday as it was causing power failures and communications
disruptions.
While the typhoon had initially been expected to hit Shanghai
head-on, heavily populated neighbouring Zhejiang instead bore the
initial brunt of the storm, which weakened slightly before making
landfall.
Wipha has also caused the postponement of two matches in the Women's
Soccer World Cup, which China is hosting.
Expectations of continued heavy rains were a concern as downpours
preceding the typhoon have filled some rivers and reservoirs to their
warning marks, Xinhua said.
Typhoons regularly hit China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea towards
the end of August and in September.
Earlier this month Typhoon Fitow struck Japan, killing seven people,
while on Sunday Typhoon Nari killed at least nine in South Korea.
AFP |
