China issues red alert as Typhoon Dolphin hits eastern coast
China's national observatory issued a red alert, the highest level in the country's typhoon warning system, as Typhoon Dolphin made landfall in Zhejiang province on the eastern coast on Sunday, August 9.
Typhoon Dolphin, the 13th typhoon of the year in China, hit land with a maximum sustained wind speed of 42 metres per second, making it a severe typhoon at landfall.
Wang Haiping, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Centre (NMC), said the red alert was necessitated by the typhoon's heavy rainfall intensity, extensive impact range and prolonged duration.
From Sunday to Wednesday, regions including northern Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, northern Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, eastern Hubei, central and eastern Henan, and southern Shandong will be hit by heavy downpours, with central-eastern Zhejiang and southern Anhui facing severe torrential rain, the NMC said, warning local authorities in affected areas to guard against extreme downpours.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, in the Zhejiang provincial capital, cancelled 500 inbound and outbound flights for the day due to the typhoon. Shanghai's two main airports scrapped more than 80 per cent of their daily flights, over 2,230 cancellations in total, with more than 720 additional flights called off for Monday, August 10.
Wang Hao, Communist Party secretary of Zhejiang province, said Sunday that public safety was the top priority, urging strict precautions against mountain torrents, mudslides and other disasters that could be triggered by heavy rainfall, and demanding the complete evacuation of anyone in harm's way.
A nine-year-old boy was swept into the sea while walking with his family ahead of the typhoon's landfall on Friday, August 7, when a large wave struck the coastal sea wall in Shitang, a town in Zhejiang's Wenling, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. The search for the missing boy continued into Sunday, though local officials said dangerous conditions were hampering the effort.
The NMC forecast Typhoon Dolphin to move north-westward and gradually weaken after landfall, with its weakened remnant vortex turning northward after Wednesday. A remnant vortex is a persistent low-pressure system that continues to exist after a tropical cyclone makes landfall and loses its primary energy source from the ocean.
Wang said coastal areas of East China and the East China Sea needed to focus on guarding against gale-force winds. From Sunday to Tuesday, most parts of the East China Sea, Hangzhou Bay, the coastal areas of Zhejiang, and the Yangtze River Estuary are expected to see winds of Force 9 to 12, with gusts reaching Force 11 to 14, and gusts near the typhoon's centre potentially reaching Force 15 to 16, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Wang added that relevant provinces also needed to guard against secondary disasters triggered by persistent heavy rainfall, saying the risks of mountain torrents, geological disasters and flash floods in small and medium-sized rivers were relatively high in Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan and Hebei, while some cities faced high risks of urban waterlogging.
"A typhoon's landfall does not mean its impact is over. After Dolphin makes landfall, it will push further inland," Wang said.
From Thursday to Sunday, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, northern Shandong and Liaoning are likely to see heavy rainfall, with some areas expected to experience severe torrential rain. In response to the typhoon, China's meteorological authority on Sunday upgraded its emergency response for severe meteorological disasters from Level III to Level II.
