China Evacuates 1 Million Ahead of Super Typhoon

1,000,000 people are being evacuated in China's financial capital Shanghai and its neighboring districts to prepare for what forecasters say will be the most destructive typhoon to hit Shanghai in a decade.

This is the first time in 10 years that the eye of the storm will probably make landfall in Shanghai,' said Ding Ruoyang of the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau. He said the evacuation includes residents who live in old and dangerous houses, workers who live in temporary construction site structures as well as those living near the shore. Schools have been closed but airports remain open.

Chinese state-run television showed families being evacuated from their fishing boats and other vessels. Shopkeepers stacked sand bags to prevent flooding as drains clogged amid torrential rains.

Matches at the Women's World Cup have been postponed and one fixture scheduled for tomorrow has been relocated a three-hour drive away to neighboring Hangzhou.

Two zoos in Shanghai are taking precautions against the typhoon, caging the animals, cutting off electricity to prevent fire outbreaks and deploying more staff overnight. "Fallen trees may hurt the animals and some may take the chance to climb up the trees and escape, so we need to ground them for the moment," said director of the Shanghai zoo.

The typhoon, whipping up waves up to 36 feet high, was moving northwest toward the Chinese mainland. Weather reports forecast it would make landfall south of Shanghai early Wednesday morning.

Wipha, a woman's name in Thai, was upgraded from a tropical storm Monday.

Shanghai and the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian to the south issued typhoon warnings requiring all vessels to return to shore or change course to avoid the storm, Xinhua News Agency said.

By 3:00 p.m., a total of one million people in Shanghai, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces had been evacuated, and the relocations are still continuing.

It said nearly 30,000 fishing boats in the province had taken shelter in port by late Monday and ferry service with outlying islands was suspended.

The deadliest storm to hit the China coast in recent years was Typhoon Winnie in 1997, which killed 236 people. Typhoon Rananim, with winds of more than 100 mph, was the strongest typhoon to hit the Chinese mainland since 1956, killing nearly 200 people.

Source：Chron / RTE / Xinhua