More than 1,600 flights have been cancelled and around 500,000 people evacuated as Typhoon Dolphin is expected to make landfall on China's eastern coast late Sunday night (August 9), according to the National Meteorological Center of China (NMC).
The NMC issued a red alert for the typhoon, the highest warning level, on Sunday morning. Authorities are bracing for flooding and landslides, as the storm is forecast to bring torrential rains and strong winds to densely populated eastern coastal areas.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, Shanghai's Hongqiao and Pudong airports cancelled nearly 1,400 flights on Sunday. At Hangzhou airport in neighboring Zhejiang province, airlines scrapped 270 domestic and international flights.
On Saturday evening, Zhejiang provincial authorities evacuated about 390,000 people in the city of Taizhou, while Shanghai relocated more than 30,000 residents from high-risk areas. In Fujian province, around 99,000 people were moved from danger zones ahead of the storm, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Services on over 200 ferry routes in Zhejiang and Fujian have been suspended. The NMC forecasts unusually heavy rain in parts of central and eastern Zhejiang, with rainfall amounts ranging from 250 mm to 500 mm. Heavy rain is also expected through Monday across Shanghai, northern Fujian, northeastern Jiangxi, central and southern Anhui, and most of Jiangsu province.
The typhoon is expected to hit China between Sunday night and Monday morning with sustained winds of up to 162 km/h before weakening and moving inland, the NMC said.
The storm's outer bands have also affected northern Taiwan, including the capital Taipei, since Saturday. Dozens of ferry services were suspended and over 180 flights cancelled as the typhoon brought heavy rain and strong winds to the northern part of the island on Sunday.
Earlier, Typhoon Dolphin swept through Japan's southern Okinawa prefecture over the weekend, injuring seven people and cutting power to more than 50,000 buildings. As of Sunday afternoon, the storm had knocked out electricity to 5,290 households in the region, according to the Okinawa Electric Power Company.
