Domestic flights were canceled in South Korea yesterday as Typhoon Chan-Hom brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to southwestern provinces after wreaking substantial damage in China.
The storm grounded 60 domestic flights linking Seoul with the southwestern coastal city of Yeosu and the southern resort island of Jeju, airport authorities said. International flights were not affected.
A strong-wind alert has been issued along South Korea’s southern and western coastal areas, which received up to 197mm of rain as of 11am.
Authorities in China evacuated more than 1 million people as the typhoon swiped the eastern coast on Saturday, paralyzing transport links and devastating farmland, although no casualties were reported, the Chinese government and state media said.
Huge waves struck the coast in Wenling, in the east of worst-hit province of Zhejiang, while further north, people in the city of Shaoxing scrambled onto diggers and dragged themselves along ropes to escape the floodwaters.
Provincial authorities estimate economic losses from the storm could reach more than 1.9 billion yuan (US$306 million), particularly in the agricultural sector, Chinese state media reported.
Pictures from the region showed smashed greenhouses, flooded irrigation systems and ruined crops.
In the wake of the storm, photographs circulating on the Internet showed residents young and old catching fish that the typhoon had washed ashore.
China’s National Meteorological Center yesterday downgraded its alert on the typhoon from red to orange, its second-highest warning, but it issued a rainstorm alert for the provinces of Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang.
Five people in the Philippines were killed earlier in the week and more than 20 people injured in Japan on Friday.
Weather authorities said the typhoon is likely to be downgraded to a tropical storm when it reaches North Korea’s Hwanghae Province today.
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