Shanghai yesterday relocated more than 280,000 people, halted hundreds of flights and ferry services, and imposed speed limits on roads and railways, as a tropical storm whipped eastern China with gales and heavy rain.
Tropical Storm Co-May’s landfall in the port city of Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province early yesterday was soon followed by warnings of a tsunami set off by a powerful earthquake off Russia’s far east, raising concerns of larger-than-expected storm surges along the Chinese coast.
While the winds from Co-May were weaker than those generated by typhoons, the Chinese financial hub and other cities in the Yangtze River delta have taken no chances.
Photo: Reuters
At least 640 flights could be canceled at Shanghai’s two main airports, including 410 at Pudong and 230 at Hongqiao, authorities said.
All ferry services in Shanghai had been canceled since yesterday morning, and drivers were told to drive under 60kph on highways, local media reported.
Flights were also canceled or diverted at airports at nearby cities Ningbo, Wenzhou and Hangzhou. As of yesterday morning, more than 75 percent of yesterday’s flights at Zhoushan had been canceled.
Some train services in the region were temporarily suspended with others operated under restricted speeds, state media said.
Shanghai is rarely subject to direct hits from strong typhoons that generally make landfall further south in China. The most significant typhoon in the past few years that landed directly in Shanghai was Bebinca last year, the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit China’s financial capital since 1949.
Co-May made landfall in Zhoushan early yesterday with maximum sustained wind speeds near its center of 83kph. Forecasters expect Co-May to make another landfall closer to Shanghai later in the day.
The storm coincided with a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula yesterday, about 4,000km from Shanghai.
The Chinese National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said the tsunami was expected to have a “disastrous impact” on some parts of China’s coast, including Shanghai and Zhoushan.
The center also issued tsunami warnings for the two cities, which could be hit by waves of up to 1m in height in the early evening.
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