It is pouring rain in China’s eastern provinces as a result of the typhoon, which has already caused at least five deaths in nearby Taiwan, where it was the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years.
The authorities have evacuated 290,000 people in Fujian and closed all public transport, as well as offices, schools and markets in some cities.
Television footage from neighboring Zhejiang province shows streets turned into rivers, trees littering the roads and cyclists struggling through knee-deep water.
Serious hazard warning
The city of Wenzhou, home to about nine million people, has issued its most severe rain warning and evacuated nearly 7,000 people, according to Chinese broadcaster CCTV.
Heavy rain is also expected in central Jiangxi and Henan, according to state media. Guangdong, China’s most populous province, canceled several train departures on Friday in anticipation of the typhoon headed there.
According to the China Meteorological Institute, the typhoon is moving northwest at a speed of around 20 kilometers per hour. However, it will weaken gradually as it reaches Jiangzi late Friday afternoon, it said.
No deaths or injuries have yet been reported.
Frequent extreme weather
On its way to China, the typhoon has also hit the Philippines hard, where heavy rains triggered floods and landslides that killed at least 30 people, according to local police.
A tanker with 1.4 million liters of heavy oil also sank outside the Philippine capital Manila on Thursday, and the authorities are now working furiously to prevent an environmental disaster.
China has been hit by a variety of extreme weather this summer, with heat waves in the north and heavy rain in eastern and southern provinces.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday called on local authorities to be “extremely vigilant and proactive” as the country enters the peak flood season.
China is by far the world’s largest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say drive climate change and make extreme weather events more intense and frequent.
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2024-07-28 05:30:08
