Wed, August 08, 2012
The arrival of typhoon Haikui has resulted in the evacuation of 1.8 million people in east China's Zhejiang Province and Shanghai Municipality, local civil affairs authorities said Wednesday.
More than 1.54 million people have been evacuated in Zhejiang and 252,000 residents have been relocated in Shanghai following Haikui's landing in central Zhejiang early Wednesday morning.
The local observatory said the storm has brought large downpours and flooding, stranding hundreds of people.
The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs initiated an emergency response Wednesday after sending work teams to the region to direct relief work on Tuesday.
Local authorities have allocated funds for disaster relief and are monitoring the storm around the clock.
Haikui is the third typhoon to wallop China's eastern coast in a week after storms Saola and Damrey tore through the region and left at least 23 people dead over the weekend.
Typhoon Haikui wrecks havoc after landing
Typhoon Haikui brought downpours and flooding which stranded dozens of people in east China after landing in Zhejiang Province early Wednesday morning, the provincial observatory said.
Haikui landed in Hepu Township, Xiangshan County near the Sanmenwan Gulf in central Zhejiang at 3:20 a.m. with the maximum wind speed at 150 kilometers per hour, said the observatory.
The rain-triggered flooding stranded about 130 people in three farmer's hotels in the city of Lin'an which the provincial capital Hangzhou administers, said Lin'an municipal rescuers.
By 8 a.m., 123 people have been rescued while ten others have yet to be reached by the rescuers, they said.
The rescuers once had difficulty to reach the hotels as roads towards it have been flooded and they had to march the last two kilometers on foot, rescuers said.
Haikui is the third typhoon to wallop China's eastern coast in a week, after storms Saola and Damrey hit the region over the weekend.
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