Typhoon Matsa battered China's eastern coast with strong winds and heavy rain yesterday morning, killing one and forcing more than 1 million people from their homes, state media reported.
The domestic airport in the country's financial hub, Shanghai, was shut and most international departures were canceled. Debris and small floods clogged streets after downpours in the night. Reporters at the scene said the water level in some areas was waist-high.
Donning large raincoats, rescue workers were seen pushing inflatable rafts piled full of bread and other relief supplies through waterclogged streets.
PHOTO: AFP
A shed on one of Shanghai's many construction sites collapsed in the rain, killing one person and injuring two, the official Xinhua agency reported.
Matsa made landfall at Ganjiang in Zhejiang Province at 3:40am after officials there and elsewhere in Zhejiang had evacuated more than 1.24 million people.
Packing winds of 162kph, Matsa brought huge waves onto the shores. Gale-force winds also uprooted trees and knocked down some houses, local media reported.
It was last heading northwest, threatening the scenic provincial capital of Hangzhou.
Officials in Hangzhou said the storm could wreak more havoc than last year's Typhoon Rananim, which killed 164 people and caused 18 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) in damage, the China Daily said.
Residents who did not have to be evacuated stayed indoors, with few signs of cars or people on the streets. Shopowners boarded up their storefronts.
Safe harbors have been arranged for 41,000 ships, and regional authorities have been urged to lower water levels behind rain-swollen dams to try to avoid flooding.
A lot of farmland is believed to be submerged and destroyed, although final figures were not available. Local authorities have been urged to lower water levels in reservoirs to prevent floods, Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng was quoted by state media as saying.
Some coastal bus services have been suspended and Hangzhou bay residents were told to keep away from the river in case of tidal waves. Ningbo port, the country's second largest in terms of handling capacity, was closed on Friday, the newspaper added.
In Shanghai, located only about 300km north of the eye of the storm, 43,600 residents were evacuated and several streets flooded, the Shanghai Morning Post said.
All flights of Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines in Zhejiang and Shanghai were grounded, the paper said.
More than 100 Eastern Airlines flights were expected to be canceled yesterday, and several dozen from Shanghai Airlines would face the same fate, the Post said.
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