Typhoon pounds China, forcing 1.1 million to flee

Chan-hom is expected to make landfall south of Shanghai later on Saturday.

Chan-hom hit the island with winds upward of 175 km/h before continuing its trajectory.

Domestic flights were cancelled in South Korea today as Typhoon Chan-hom brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to southwestern provinces. Nangka was briefly categorized as a “super typhoon” with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour early Friday but weakened slightly Saturday, the Weather Channel said.

Four inches of rain, plus the surging ocean water, left the low lying coastal region flooded and without power.

Economic activity on China’s wealthy eastern seaboard was heavily disrupted as authorities canceled trains and flights out of two Shanghai airports and ordered tens of thousands of ships back to port.

Shanghai, the largest city, was also expected to be affected. Typhoon Chan-hom is heading directly for China’s heavily populated Eastern seaboard. A number of cities have even canceled bus and boat ferry rides as a satefy precaution.

Firefighters in Ningbo City were dispatched to typhoon-hit areas to remove damaged advertising boards on buildings. It initially was deemed a super-typhoon but has been downgraded to a strong typhoon.

Chan-Hom, the ninth typhoon this year, hit northern area of the east China sea on Saturday, packing winds of up to 35 metres per second, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.

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.

Typhoon Linfa displaced 56,000 people in southern Guangdong province on Thursday 9 July, according to Xinhua news agency.

Approximately 1 million people were evacuated as a precaution in Zhejiang and another 46,000 in the neighboring province of Jiangsu, according to local emergency management services, which reported no lives lost in the typhoon. The Japanese weather bureau has described the incoming typhoon as “very strong”.