China evacuates hundreds of thousands ahead of typhoon

Power supplies in Zhoushan City, into which Chan-Hom slammed, were also knocked out by the typhoon’s high winds.

US News reported that approximately a million people had left their homes near the coast before typhoon Chan-hom arrived.

It’s expected to brush Shanghai – home to more than 23 million people.

Countries like Taiwan and Japan reported a number of injuries when the typhoon hit their shores.

In neighbouring Jiangsu province, more than 46,000 people have been evacuated and 21,691 ships recalled to port. Many flights were cancelled out of Nantong and Nanjing.

The typhoon has brought rains and strong gales to Zhejiang’s coastal areas.

The storm made landfall in Zhoushan, a city just east of the port of Ningbo in Zhejiang province.

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

It dumped more than 4 inches of rain beginning late Friday – about a month’s average in less than 24 hours, China Central Television and the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Several other cities that will be affected by the super-typhoon in China suspended city bus services. 800 thousand individuals have been evacuated and hundreds of flights are cancelled.

The National Meteorological Centre maintained its highest red alert for the storm despite earlier downgrading it from “super” to “strong”.

Earlier in the week, Typhoon Linfa displaced 56,000 people in Guangong province in southern China.

Chan-hom was, however, expected to skirt the coast before heading back out to sea rather than going farther inland.

“Most coastal damage from hurricanes and typhoons tends to come from ocean flooding as the storm surge inundates all low-lying areas: the entire ocean surface will rise by tens of centimetres as the Chan-hom passes”, McElwee said.

Before reaching China, it also moved over islands in southern Japan, as well as in the northern Philippines and Taiwan.