(Shanghai) Strong winds and heavy rains hit the east coast of China on Thursday, with the typhoon Muifa which caused the preventive evacuation of more than a million people and the cancellation of flights to Shanghai.
Posted at 12:12 a.m.
However, no death, injury or major damage was announced by the authorities, in part because numerous preventive measures had been put in place.
Muifa is the most powerful typhoon to hit Shanghai, the most populous city in China with 25 million inhabitants, since at least 1949, according to public television CCTV.
Faced with the risk of flooding or damage to homes, 426,000 Shanghainese were preventively evacuated to a safe place, as were 1.26 million inhabitants of the neighboring coastal province of Zhejiang (east), according to the chain.
PHOTO ALY SONG, REUTERS
Muifa is the strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since at least 1949.
Chinese media have broadcast videos of Shanghai police in fluorescent yellow uniforms going door to door in old neighborhoods, before loading residents into buses and installing them in gymnasiums.
Other images showed residents equipped with umbrellas, carrying blankets with them and being offered instant noodles and bottled water.
665 canceled flights
Muifa made landfall in Shanghai on Thursday night around 12:30 a.m. (Wednesday 12:30 p.m. ET), bringing winds gusting to 125 km/h.
The manager of the city’s two main airports, Pudong and Hongqiao, had already announced on Wednesday evening the cancellation of all flights at two sites as the typhoon approached.
A total of 665 flights have already been canceled from the metropolis, CCTV said.
The Shanghai Airports Manager did not release any air traffic updates on Thursday.
But with the typhoon moving away from the city, flights seem to be slowly resuming, although most are still canceled, according to the specialist site Flightradar24.
The major ports of Shanghai, as well as Ningbo and Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, announced in statements Thursday morning that they would resume loading containers during the day.
“Gradually weaken”
The typhoon continues to move north along the coast of eastern China. It is currently located in Jiangsu province, north of Shanghai.
Its power “will gradually weaken” with winds which now only blow at “about 90 km / h”, according to the national weather service.
Many preventive measures had been put in place in Shanghai.
Some 260,000 agents commissioned by the authorities had been sent to inspect more than 4,300 construction sites, 10,000 residential areas and even 64,000 store signs in order to avoid any accident in the event of strong winds, according to CCTV.
More than 1,300 billboards and 20,000 trees had also been reinforced.
Muifa is the 12e typhoon to hit China this year, according to state media.