(Shanghai) The Chinese megacity of Shanghai was hit by a second typhoon in less than a week on Friday, forcing the evacuation of more than 100,000 people and flooding some neighborhoods.
The typhoon Pulasan made landfall on Thursday night with a maximum wind speed of 83 km/h, the government news agency Xinhua reported.
Some 112,000 people have been evacuated and some transport services, such as ferries and trains, have been suspended, according to the state agency.
Two weather stations recorded more than 300 millimeters of rainfall within six hours, the heaviest in their respective districts since records began, Xinhua said.
Videos posted on social media on Friday showed residents wading through calf-deep water, although no major damage or casualties have been reported so far.
One video, released by local state broadcaster Shanghai Media Group, shows police in bulletproof vests pushing a stalled car into flooded neighborhood waters, while a scooter rider in a poncho tries to cross a flooded intersection.
Many areas that were flooded earlier in the morning were cleared by 11 a.m. local time (11 p.m. Eastern time), an AFP reporter noted.
The storm “is expected to gradually weaken as it moves inland,” Xinhua said, although downpours continued to hit Shanghai on Friday morning.
The typhoon Pulasan occurs a few days after Bebincathe most violent storm to hit the megalopolis since 1949, caused significant damage on Monday.
Bebinca uprooted more than 1,800 trees and knocked out power to 30,000 homes. Authorities had evacuated 414,000 people in Shanghai in anticipation of the storm.