Typhoon sows destruction after landing in China
CHINA: A strong typhoon ploughed into China's eastern coast on
Wednesday, the country's third in a week, knocking down buildings and
cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of people, state media said.
Typhoon Haikui made landfall early on Wednesday morning in Zhejiang
province south of Shanghai, after authorities moved more than 1.5
million residents out of the path of the storm, the official Xinhua news
agency said.
Zhejiang had yet to report deaths or injuries, it added.
The typhoon quickly weakened after landing south of Ningbo city, the
China Meteorological Administration said, but warned that Haikui was
still packing winds of up to 137 kilometres (85 miles) per hour.
The storm had cut off electricity to nearly 400,000 households in
Zhejiang province, Xinhua said. In Ningbo city two houses collapsed
including a workers' dormitory but firefighters rescued all twelve
trapped people, it said. Haikui did not make a direct hit on Shanghai,
but officials warned the biggest impact might be from rain and wind
later on Wednesday as the typhoon moved northwest through Zhejiang into
Anhui province. Shanghai, mainland China's financial hub, raised its
most severe typhoon signal, red, shortly before midday on Wednesday and
urged people to stay home. The central government was forecasting up to
400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain for some regions affected by the
typhoon.
The Shanghai stock market opened for trading as usual, but flights at
the city's two airports were halted and some long-distance train
services in eastern China were suspended, reports said.Construction
sites and public parks were ordered to be shut.
“The biggest influence of Haikui should occur today with large gales
and heavy downpours,” Xu Ming, a researcher with the city's weather
bureau, told the Shanghai Daily.
AFP |