Typhoon In-Fa uprooted trees and drenched communities in knee-deep water in parts of eastern China, but there were no reports of major damage as it made landfall yesterday.
In-Fa landed in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, at 12.30pm, with a maximum wind force of 137kph, the China Meteorological Administration said.
Sea, air and rail traffic was shut down across a swathe of the coast centered on Zhejiang’s major shipping port of Ningbo.
Photo: AFP
Local authorities ordered schools, markets and businesses to close, and relocated more than 100,000 people, media reported.
Response teams in Ningbo cleared away fallen trees in the city center, while residents in some neighborhoods waded through floodwaters and merchants piled up sandbags in front of their businesses to keep out water.
In-Fa’s effects were also felt in Shanghai yesterday, with strong gusts of wind and steady but not heavy rainfall.
All inbound and outbound flights were canceled for the city’s two international airports, as were dozens of scheduled trains, while activity at the ports of Shanghai and Ningbo — two of the world’s largest — was also shut down.
The government announced that it would extend a suspension of railway services in and out of Shanghai through midday today.
The typhoon hit as the central province of Henan was still cleaning up after torrential downpours dumped a year’s worth of rain in just three days last week.
The meteorological administration said that after landfall In-Fa would weaken, but continue to hover over a wide expanse of eastern China for days, ringing itself out and bringing heavy rainfall, possibly to areas still recovering from last week’s flooding.
“It is necessary to be highly vigilant and prevent disasters that may be caused by extreme heavy rainfall,” the administration said.
Government officials yesterday added another five dead to the toll from the flooding in Henan, raising the total to 63.
As rescue efforts continued, it was reported that a man in central China was found after spending three days trapped in a flooded underground garage.
Li Yongsheng (李永勝) was found on Friday afternoon in a garage under the Jincheng International Plaza in Zhengzhou’s Jinshui District, news site The Paper said.
It said he was trapped when the garage flooded on Tuesday and he lay on a ventilation duct surrounded by floating cars, the Web site said.
Li was photographed being guided by rescue workers through chest-deep water before being taken to hospital.
Direct economic losses caused by the flooding are estimated at 13.9 billion yuan (US$2.14 billion), Xinhua news agency reported.
Additional reporting by AP and Bloomberg
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS