SHANGHAI, Sept 16 (Askume) – Shanghai’s usually bustling financial hub came to a standstill on Monday as residents sought refuge indoors to avoid the worst effects of Typhoon Babinka.
The Category 1 typhoon that struck Shanghai on Monday morning was the most powerful tropical cyclone to directly strike Shanghai in the past seventy years.
With peak winds of 151 kilometres per hour (94 mph), Bebinca hit the city of about 25 million people at 7:30 a.m. (2330 GMT), according to state media reports, the first to hit Shanghai since Typhoon Loria in 1949.
Heavy rainfall lashed the city, high winds knocked down over 10,000 trees in Shanghai, and over 400,000 people were evacuated from homes threatened by Bebinca.
According to state media, more than 56,000 rescue workers had been deployed by afternoon and only one person was reported injured as a result of the storm.
Since Sunday night, more than 1,400 flights and 570 passenger trains have been cancelled at the city’s two airports, disrupting the travel plans of many people during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a three-day public holiday in China.
Weather warnings were raised to the highest level in four districts of Shanghai, parks and businesses were closed, some subway train services were disrupted, and highways and elevated roads were closed or subject to special speed limits.
Shanghai resorts, including Shanghai Disney Resort, Jinjiang Amusement Park and Shanghai Wildlife Park, have been temporarily closed, and many ferry services have also been halted.
By Monday afternoon, the center of the storm had moved from Shanghai to neighboring Jiangsu province, but rain was expected to continue throughout the day in China’s financial capital.
Shanghai is rarely directly hit by strong typhoons, which usually strike southern China. Last week, the devastating Category 4 Typhoon Yagi struck southern Hainan province.
