Typhoon hits China as nearly 1 million evacuated

This story was first published on CNN.com, “Typhoon Chan-hom slams eastern China’s Zhoushan city”.

“A storm of this magnitude is sure to pile up a large storm surge, particularly since Chan-hom is a very large typhoon with tropical-storm force winds that extended outwards up to 310 miles from the center”.

Homes were evacuated and hundreds of flights cancelled, even though the typhoon saw its status downgraded from super-typhoon to strong typhoon at about noon today.

“In the East China Sea, waves of ten metres in height have been reported and as these hit the coast, considerable damage is obviously possible”.

Neighboring Jiangsu – China’s most densely populated province – was also being pounded as the Typhoon brought heavy rain which was expected to last for hours.

Typhoon winds blew down trees and street signs across Zhejiang and knocked down an unoccupied building in the city of Cixi, provincial television reported.

One person was reportedly killed and two others injured when the ceiling of a hotel room collapsed.

All flights into and out of Zhoushan were cancelled and bus services and speedboat ferry services halted.

Regarding the area’s current airport situation, as of Saturday afternoon Eastern Time, FlightAware shows over 200 cancellations and 55 delays for China Eastern and 109 cancellations and 169 delays for China Southern Airlines.

However it could still be the most powerful July typhoon to hit Zhejiang since the Communist Party took power in 1949, the National Meteorological Centre said.

Up to 650,000 people were evacauted from the coast of Zhejiang before the storm made a landfall.

In Japan, Kyodo news agency reported that super-typhoon Chan-hom already caused a total of 20 injuries in the country’s southern region citing the prefecture government of Okinawa.

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

Typhoon Nangka, a much stronger storm, will post a threat to Japan in a couple of days.