China evacuates 1.3 million ahead of typhoon

Authorities evacuated 1.3 million people from areas along China’s south-eastern coast today ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Saomai.

The Chinese government warned it could be the most powerful storm to hit the country in five decades.

Saomai was expected to make landfall today where heavy rains were expected, the official Xinhua news agency said.

At mid-morning today, the storm was 120 miles south-east of the port city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang, the provincial weather office reported. Xinhua said it was moving north-west at a speed of 16 mph, with winds of up to 135mph.

Saomai, the Vietnamese name for the planet Venus, would be the eighth powerful storm to hit China during this year’s unusually violent typhoon season.

Saomai could exceed the power of Typhoon Rananim, which pounded the region in 2004, said Li Yuzhu, head of the Zhejiang provincial weather office, according to Xinhua.

Rananim was said to be the most powerful storm to strike China since 1956. It killed 164 people in Zhejiang.

At least 760,000 people were evacuated from flood-prone areas of Zhejiang province and 569,000 from neighbouring Fujian, Xinhua said.

Nearly 34,000 vessels in Zhejiang and more than 36,000 vessels in Fujian returned to port, the agency reported.

Saomai was heading toward areas that were pounded last month by Tropical Storm Bilis, which killed more than 600 people and destroyed thousands of houses.

Most of those deaths occurred in inland areas, away from coastal communities that have elaborate networks of anti-flood dikes and long practice at evacuating flood-prone areas.

Another typhoon, Prapiroon, lashed China’s southern coast last week, killing at least 80 people.

The Hong Kong airport said 10 flights between Hong Kong and Taiwan and the mainland city of Fuzhou had been cancelled and 16 delayed as of mid-afternoon.

Yesterday, Saomai passed across the Japanese island group of Okinawa with winds up to 89mph, prompting airlines to cancel 141 flights, affecting 24,000 passengers.

Rain warnings were lifted today for Okinawa and remote islands but the government kept in effect high wave and wind advisories.

The storm was expected to pass north of Taiwan, where the Central Weather Bureau issued a sea warning for waters off the island’s northern coast. Some Taiwanese carriers said they cancelled domestic flights.

Trailing behind Saomai toward the Chinese coast was Tropical Storm Bopha.

Bopha crossed Taiwan overnight, with sustained winds of 40mph, Taiwan’s weather bureau said.

No major damage or casualties were reported, according to the government.