Typhoon hits China as 1.1 million evacuated

According to weather.com, Chan-hom is on a weakening trend, but with its strong wind fields and current it could still generate a life-threatening storm surge along the East China Sea coast.

(Chinatopix Via AP). A strong wave breaks on shore ahead of the landfall of Typhoon Chan-Hom in Wenling in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on Friday, July 10, 2015.

Typhoon Chan-hom is the strongest typhoon to hit within 200 miles of Shanghai in the past 35 years, according to Weather Underground’s Dr. Jeff Masters. The country’s railway service reported more than 100 train cancelations between the region’s cities are canceled through Sunday; more than 600 flights were canceled as well.

Xinhua reports 220,000 people have been evacuated in Zhejiang province, just south of Shanghai, where Chan-hom’s landfall and worst conditions are expected.

In the commercial capital of Shanghai, all flights out of Pudong global Airport and Hongqiao Airport were cancelled due to the typhoon, state broadcaster CCTV said.

About 1.07 million people in the province had been evacuated and 29,641 ships recalled to port. The water level of 51 large and medium-sized reservoirs had exceeded the danger level.

Described as possibly the strongest storm to strike China since the beginning of communist rule, Chinese authorities evacuated more than a million people living on the East China Sea coast.

Several area cities suspended inter-city bus services.

Five people in the Philippines were killed earlier in the week and more than 20 people injured in Japan on Friday, July 10. Chan-hom was around 370 km from Shanghai on Saturday morning, local television said.

The typhoon is the second storm to hit China in days after severe tropical storm Linfa made landfall on the coast of southern Guangdong province.

The BBC reported that Chan-hom arrived at the city of Zhoushan in the Chinese province of Zhejiang at around 4:40 p.m. local time.

A number of flights in and out of Japan’s Okinawa island chain and northern Taiwan were cancelled.