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Shanghai braces for most powerful storm in decade

"The typhoon is very likely to develop into the worst one in recent years. We are still observing it. It's hard to say at this moment."

Shanghai meteorological bureau

China's biggest city closed schools and evacuated 200,000 people as it braced yesterday for the expected arrival of Typhoon Wipha, forecast to be the most powerful storm to hit the city in a decade.

City authorities ordered schools closed today in Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million. Chinese state-run television showed families being evacuated from their fishing boats and other vessels. Shopkeepers stacked sand bags to prevent flooding as drains clogged amid torrential rains.

The storm forced the cancelation of many flights out of Shanghai and other regional airports, state media reports said.

The typhoon, whipping up waves up to 10m high, was moving northwest toward China. Weather reports forecast it would make landfall south of Shanghai early today.

Wipha was upgraded from a tropical storm on Monday. With wind gusts of up to 290kph, local meteorological officials said it could be the most destructive storm to hit the Shanghai area in years.

"The typhoon is very likely to develop into the worst one in recent years. We are still observing it. It's hard to say at this moment," said a man who answered the phone at the city's meteorological bureau.

As is common with Chinese officials, the man identified himself only by his surname, Fu.

Shanghai and the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian to the south issued typhoon warnings requiring all vessels to return to shore or change course to avoid the storm, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Some 200,000 people living in coastal or low-lying rural areas of Shanghai were being evacuated, as were parts of Zhejiang, Xinhua said.

It said nearly 30,000 fishing boats in the province had taken shelter in port by late Monday and ferry service with outlying islands had been suspended.

It did not mention Typhoon Saomai, which killed 436 people in southeast China in August last year and was labeled the strongest storm to hit China in 50 years.

Typhoon Winnie killed 236 people in 1997.
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