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UPDATES with weather warnings, ADDS details, background
Chinese authorities prepared for heavy rain on Sunday as a strong typhoon approached the country’s heavily populated eastern seaboard.
Typhoon Bebinca was expected to make landfall along a swath of coastline including the megacity of Shanghai between Sunday night and Monday morning, according to Beijing’s emergency management ministry.
The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the storm would cause “heavy to torrential” downpours with “local heavy or extremely heavy rainstorms” between Sunday and Tuesday.
Officials held a meeting Saturday to “research and deploy flood and typhoon control work in key areas”, it said.
Bebinca’s expected landfall will come during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a public holiday in China.
The country’s railway operator is expecting passengers to take 74 million trips during the holiday, state news agency Xinhua reported Saturday.
The emergency management ministry said officials must “pay close attention to the development of the typhoon”, adding that “many people will be travelling, mobility will be high and safety risks will be prominent”.
The water resources ministry launched on Saturday a level-four emergency response — the lowest in a tiered system — for flooding in Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, according to Xinhua.
The weather office issued orange typhoon warnings — the second-highest in a four-tier system — for several districts in Shanghai and areas of nearby provinces on Sunday.
It advised that people refrain from gathering in large numbers, boats return to port and rickety structures be strengthened against high winds.
Shanghai municipal authorities urged residents on Sunday to “strengthen efforts to guard against harmful effects of the typhoon on high-altitude work, transportation, infrastructure and agriculture”.
Some flights to and from major airports in Shanghai were cancelled or rescheduled on Sunday because of the typhoon, state media and airlines said.
Passenger shipping lines were scheduled to be suspended in Shanghai from Sunday, according to an official statement on the social media account of the municipal port and shipping development centre.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Another typhoon, Yagi, killed at least four and injured 95 when it passed through China’s southern Hainan island this month, according to national weather authorities.
Bebinca passed through Japan’s Amami island overnight, carrying gusts of up to 198 kilometres (123 miles) per hour, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, warning of an increased risk of landslides due to heavy rain.
The storm also slammed into the central and southern Philippines on Friday.
Philippine officials said on Sunday that falling trees had killed six people as the tropical storm brought strong winds and floods.
burs-mjw/pbt
