At least 13 people were killed and 16 others went missing after Typhoon Lekima made landfall in China’s Zhejiang province
Typhoon Lekima, which made landfall in China’s Wenling with a maximum wind force of 187 km/h on Saturday, killed 13 people and forced more than one million people to evacuate. Sixteen people were reported missing after a landslide occurred due to the storm in Wenzhou.
The National Meteorological Centre (NMC) issued had a red alert on Friday, but downgraded it to orange after winds abated to 144 km/h on Saturday morning. The storm will pass through Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and make another landfall in the Shandong Peninsula on Sunday. According to the NMC, the storm will move north at a gradually decreasing speed of 15 km/h.
Rail and ferry services were suspended in Zhejiang province as a precautionary measure and at least 288 flights were reported cancelled. Rescue teams of 1000 members have been deployed in several areas by the authorities, along with 150 fire engines and 153 boats.
On Friday, the storm went past northern Taiwan and injured at least nine people. Thousands of homes lost electricity and more than 500 flights were cancelled as a result of the storm.
Meanwhile, 253,000 people were evacuated in Shanghai before the storm. Shanghai Disneyland has been closed temporarily due to bad weather. The storm tore across 3,000 trees and snapped 100 power lines, 80 of which have been restored. Shanghai has been battered by heavy rainfall since Friday.
Lekima is one of the two powerful typhoons that are causing havoc in the western Pacific at the moment. Typhoon Krosa, in the east, has caused heavy rainfall in the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Forecasters believe that the storm is heading north-west and can hit Japan next week.
Also read: http://diplomacybeyond.com/indian-cricketers-to-be-tested-by-the-national-anti-doping-agencynada/
