Storm slams Shanghai as locals stay at home
Typhoon Haikui battered Shanghai Wednesday with gale-force winds and torrential rains, disrupting traffic and grounding flights after officials raised the city's typhoon warning to its highest level Wednesday morning.
Weather authorities raised the typhoon warning level to red at 11:30 am, making Haikui one of the strongest storms to hit the city in seven years.
A 57-year-old local woman was killed by fallen glasses in suburban Baoshan district after the typhoon landed in the town of Hepu in northern Zhejiang Province at 3 am Wednesday.
Officers arrived at the scene at 7 am and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene, said Zeng Ni, a press officer of Baoshan police. "The victim was hit by flying glass and debris at a residential complex," she told the Global Times. "An initial investigation showed that the glass fell from a neighbor's window."
In a separate case, a collapsed factory wall killed one person and injured three others in an adjacent dormitory in Songjiang district at 11 am.
Batten down the hatches
The typhoon was heading toward Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, early Wednesday, but the storm was already buffeting Shanghai with gales that exceeded 105 kilometers per hour in the city's southernmost districts of Jinshan and Fengxian, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau. The city center endured winds of up to 90 kilometers per hour between 12 pm to 2 pm.
The Shanghai Municipal Flood Control Administration said more than 6,300 vessels sought shelter in the city's three main ports, though no crew members were reported injured as of 3 pm Wednesday.
Torrential rains deluged the city Wednesday, drenching Fengxian district with 100.8 millimeters of rain from midnight to 2 pm, weather authorities said. At People's Square in downtown Huangpu district, the storm dumped 60.8 millimeters of rain in a single hour between 2 pm and 3 pm.
Luxun Park in downtown Hongkou district saw 229.3 millimeters of precipitation in a 24-hour period starting from 8 pm Tuesday.
Heavy rain flooded roads and low-lying areas across the city. The local government evacuated 374,000 people from high-risk areas overnight, and more than 38 incidents of flooding were reported as of 4 pm Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of local residents stayed home as Haikui approached the city and the local government encouraged employers to give residents the day off.
Haikui was downgraded to a tropical storm at 9 pm Wednesday, but the National Meteorological Center predicted that heavy rain will continue to affect the Yangtze River Delta Region through Friday.
Shanghai's flood prevention agency has had more than 100,000 men on standby since Tuesday to handle emergencies across the city. The men will remain on standby until the typhoon warning is lifted, said Zhang Zhenyu, the agency's deputy director.
Traffic interruptions
Shanghai's airport authority said that Shanghai Pudong International Airport had canceled 474 flights and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport had canceled 234 flights as of 5 pm Wednesday.
A press officer surnamed Zhang with China Eastern Airlines told the Global Times that it will take four to five days to clear the backlog of passengers delayed due to the storm.
Zhong Yi, a local resident who was scheduled to fly from Hongqiao Airport to Shenzhen at 8 am Wednesday, told the Global Times that all hotlines were busy in the morning, leaving her no choice but to wait at the airport.
The airport urged passengers to check flight information on its official website as hotline operators had been overwhelmed since Tuesday afternoon. Another 34 overseas flights operated by Dragon Air and Cathay Pacific were also canceled, affecting nearly 3,000 passengers scheduled to fly to Hong Kong.
The storm also disrupted the city's subway system Wednesday. Shanghai Shentong Metro Group announced that service on Line 2 between Guanglan Road Station and Pudong International Airport Station was suspended at 12:30 pm due to strong winds.
The Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone and Wuzhou Avenue stations on Line 6 were temporarily shut down as flying debris disrupted power lines. The operator imposed speed limits on Line 1 between the Hengshan Road Station and the Shanghai South Railway Station.
"The operator saw passenger volumes collapse this morning as many workplaces closed due to the typhoon," said Lan Tian, the operator's press officer. "Passenger volume was 46.7 percent lower than normal during morning rush hour."
The glitches in public transportation helped overwhelm the city's taxi services.
Qiangsheng Taxi Group said its dispatch center received more than 20,000 calls from 8 am to 9 am, five times more than it gets on the average weekday.