China evacuates 417,000 people as it issues highest alert for Typhoon Fitow
Storm set to slam into the country’s eastern coast
Sunday, 06 October, 2013 [Updated: 5:24PM]
Agencies in Beijing
Frontier soldiers fix anchored fishing boats to shelter from Typhoon Fitow at a port in Wenling, east China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese authorities say hundreds of thousands of people in the southeast of the country have been evacuated and fishing vessels called back to shore because of an approaching typhoon.
The National Meteorological Centre says Typhoon Fitow is expected to make landfall early Monday between Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.
Provincial authorities said that by noon on Sunday more than 65,000 boats had returned to port or moved to safer areas. Zhejiang’s provincial government said 289,000 people had been evacuated from fishing boats and coastal areas. Fujian’s government said 128,000 boat workers and dwellers had been evacuated.
The meteorological centre says the typhoon will bring heavy or torrential rain to five provinces, Shanghai and Taiwan over the next three days.
The National Meteorological Centre issued a red alert for the storm, its highest alert.
The storm, which the centre classified as “strong” with winds up to 151 kilometres per hour, was located on Sunday afternoon about 280 kilometres southeast of the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang and moving at a speed of 18 kilometres an hour.
“We must not leave anybody in danger,” Li Qiang, the provincial governor said, requesting local authorities increase inspections of dams and reservoirs as well as safety checks of chemical plants and other important facilities, Xinhua reported.
The typhoon was expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds, Xinhua added, quoting the weather centre as saying it was unusual for a typhoon to come ashore in China’s southeast during October, and that it urged authorities and residents to increase their alert levels.
Fitow is named after a flower from Micronesia and comes just two weeks after Typhoon Usagi wreaked havoc in the region.
China’s weather warning system consists of four levels, with red the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue, according to Xinhua.
The storm, the 23rd typhoon of the year, passed through Japan’s southern Okinawan island chain, forcing flight cancellations and causing power outages.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau issued a warning over the storm on Sunday morning as it was barrelling past the north of the island.
A total of 103 international flights were cancelled while 14 flights were delayed. Seventeen ferry services between Taiwan and offshore islands were also terminated.
A total of 670 mountain climbers were advised to scrap their plans as the bureau forecast torrential rains in mountainous areas in the north and northeast.
The bureau said the typhoon has ditched up to 400 mm of rainfall although it is not likely to make landfall on the island.
Taiwan’s military has ordered more than 20,000 troops to be on standby.
Agence France-Presse, Associated Press
