East China braces for Typhoon Wipha by Nina Ridge
Over 200,000 people in China’s commercial centre, Shanghai have been evacuated on Tuesday in preparation for what could be the strongest storm to hit the city in a decade. Wipha, which was upgraded from a tropical storm into a typhoon earlier, has been gaining in strength. As of midnight last night, the typhoon has been packing winds of 180 km (112 miles) an hour, delivering gale force winds and heavy rain to northern Taiwan.
More than 17 million people live in the city, with officials placing the neighbouring provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian on high alert. Forecasters are particularly concerned over the path of the typhoon, saying “it is the first time in ten years that the eye of the storm will probably make landfall in Shanghai.” Wipha is expected to track towards Zhejiang, making landfall later on Tuesday.
This is not the first time over the past few weeks that parts of SE Asia have faced the onset of a typhoon. Earlier in the month Typhoon Fitow hit Japan, while on Sunday nine people in South Korea were killed by typhoon Nari.
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