Typhoon Bebinca lashes Shanghai, strongest storm to hit city since 1949
All flights at Shanghai's two main airports are grounded, while ferry services and over 570 passenger trains have been suspended.
A firefighter stands near debris along a business street in the aftermath of Typhoon Bebinca in Shanghai, China on Sep 16, 2024. (Photo: AP/Chinatopix)
SHANGHAI: Tens of millions of people in Shanghai and across China's densely populated east coast hunkered indoors on Monday (Sep 16) as the strongest storm to hit the city in over seven decades swept in, downing trees and disrupting transport across the region.
Typhoon Bebinca - the fiercest storm to hit the megacity since Gloria 75 years ago - landed early Monday morning in the eastern coastal area, with wind speeds of about 150kmh, state media said.
Many businesses were already closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival public holiday, and the city's 25 million residents have been advised to avoid leaving their homes.
The municipal news service said the typhoon had caused "significant damage across the city", felling over 1,800 trees and leaving 30,000 households without electricity.
It said 414,000 people across the city had been evacuated to safer locations, and tens of thousands of emergency personnel were on hand to be deployed when necessary.
Parks were also closed as four districts in Shanghai upgraded weather alerts to the highest possible levels.
Shanghai is rarely subject to direct hits from strong typhoons that generally make landfall further south in China. Yagi, a destructive Category 4 storm, roared past southern Hainan province last week.
FLIGHTS GROUNDED
All flights at Shanghai's two main airports are grounded, while ferry services and over 570 passenger trains have been suspended.
This has disrupted the travel plans of many people on the move over the three-day public holiday period.
In an advisory posted on its website, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said four flights to and from Shanghai Pudong Airport on Sunday and Monday have been cancelled due to weather conditions.
SIA added that as the situation remains fluid, other flights between Singapore and China may be affected due to the storm.
Highways were closed at 1am local time, and a 40kmh speed limit is in place on roads inside the city.
At rush hour, live video feeds showed Shanghai's normally jammed roads almost empty of traffic, and its famed skyline obscured by thick fog.
Resorts in Shanghai, including Shanghai Disney Resort, Jinjiang Amusement Park and Shanghai Wild Animal Park, have been temporarily closed.
FEROCIOUS WINDS
An uprooted tree completely blocked one road in the city centre, an AFP reporter saw.
Elsewhere, emergency workers in orange jumpsuits worked to clear fallen debris from a soaked shopping street home to a number of international brands.
Xiong Zhuowu, a doctor and resident of the northern Baoshan district, posted a video of a real estate agent's sign being ripped away onto a roof in his compound.
"I feel quite nervous today, I'm constantly checking what the situation is out the window," Xiong told AFP.
"The property management found some trees with loose roots downstairs and immediately called me to move my car to prevent the tree hitting it if it fell."
A government livefeed from Baoshan showed ferocious winds ripping through a line of trees on the riverbank.
Despite the violent downpours and sudden gusts of wind, some were still braving the weather to go about errands.
Resident Wu Yun said she had ventured outside because she had to sort something out at her sales job.
"I think it's okay, because I also saw a lot of typhoons in the south, so I think Shanghai is okay (compared to them)," she told AFP as she struggled to open her umbrella against the wind.
Branches and fallen bikes littered the road in the city's former French Concession, as delivery workers and clean-up crews persevered against the driving rain.
EVACUATIONS
Nine thousand residents have been evacuated from Chongming District, an island at the mouth of the Yangtze River, authorities said.
CCTV broadcast footage of a reporter by the coast in neighbouring Zhejiang province, where waves pounded the craggy coastline under leaden skies.
"If I step out into (the storm), I can barely speak," the reporter said.
"You can see that the surface of the sea is just wave after wave, each higher than the last."
Another typhoon, Yagi, killed at least four people and injured 95 when it passed through China's southern Hainan island this month, according to national weather authorities.
Bebinca has also passed through Japan and the central and southern Philippines, where falling trees killed six people.
By early Monday afternoon, the eye of the storm had crossed from Shanghai to the neighbouring Jiangsu province, though rains were expected to continue in China's financial capital throughout the rest of the day.
CCTV said Bebinca was expected to move northwest, causing heavy rain and high winds in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.
