Shanghai’s airports canceled or delayed dozens of flights yesterday as authorities braced for Typhoon Muifa, but the storm bypassed China’s commercial capital and headed further north.
More than 500,000 people were evacuated as the powerful typhoon was previously forecast to hit the eastern coast near Shanghai starting on Saturday, but Muifa changed course while at sea, packing winds of 178kph, the national meteorological center said yesterday.
The temperamental storm — which has already changed speed and direction several times — is now due to make landfall in -Shandong Province near Qingdao this morning, the center said, although it is weakening.
PHOTO: EPA
Authorities had initially expressed concern that Muifa might wreak havoc similar to the destruction unleashed by Typhoon Saomai in 2006 — the worst to hit the nation in 50 years — which killed at least 450 people.
Still, the two airports in Shanghai halted many flights yesterday morning, following the cancellation of more than 200 flights the previous day, which affected about 30,000 passengers. Some resumed in the afternoon as the storm passed and planes were able to take off and land again, a local media report said.
The typhoon — which had originally been forecast to be Shanghai’s worst since 2005 — brought strong winds and rain to the metropolis yesterday.
At least one person went missing in Zhejiang Province when a boat sank, Xinhua news agency reported, but there were no reports of major road blockages or downed trees in Shanghai.
The eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong were bracing for the impact of the storm, evacuating tens of thousands of people and ordering boats back to shore, media reports said.
The local weather bureau in Shandong said the typhoon might weaken to a tropical storm when it makes landfall, but authorities had still ordered around 20,000 fishing boats to go back to harbor, Xinhua said.
The National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center has warned that the typhoon could affect an even wider area than initially predicted if it continues to hug the eastern coast and makes landfall further north.
“In this case, Muifa would affect the whole eastern and northern sea area,” it said.
Meanwhile, South Korean authorities issued a tidal wave and flood warning along the country’s west and south coast and urged steps to prevent possible flooding. They also warned of strong winds overnight that could possibly damage trees, traffic lights and street signs in central parts of the country, including Seoul.
Many domestic flights, including between Seoul and the southern island of Jeju, were canceled, according to Yonhap news agency. More than 20,000 Jeju homes suffered blackouts of up to an hour yesterday.
Additional reporting by AP
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion