Typhoon Chanchu hits the south coast of China and makes it into the record books by Kaye Forster
Typhoon Chanchu slammed into the southern Chinese coastline during the early hours of Thursday morning and is thought to have been the strongest Typhoon to have entered the South China Sea during May. More than 600,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes along the Chinese coastline as the storm neared land.
The storm first hit the Philippines near Manila during last weekend and the heavy rain caused severe flooding and several landslides in the area. Winds up to 115mph destroyed hundreds of houses.
Chanchu then moved into the South China Sea where it gained strength from the warm sea waters.
It was previously thought that the Typhoon would make landfall very close to Hong Kong, which has a population of almost 7 million people. However, the storm changed track earlier this week and moved further east. The provinces of Guangdong and Fujian took the full brunt of the storm and it made landfall between the cities of Shantou and Xiamen.
Several roads in Shantou where completely submerged in water and the strong winds brought down power-lines, leaving thousands without electricity.
Without the fuel from the warm sea waters, Chanchu has now lost strength. Current wind speeds are around 120mph but the winds are expected to weaken to around 50pmh by Friday. Heavy rain will still continue to cause problems over the next few days.
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