Typhoon Dolphin lashed Okinawa prefecture, injuring six people and cutting power to more than 50,000 buildings, while China shut ports and halted ferries ahead of the storm’s expected arrival on its east coast.
Five elderly people, three of whom fell due to strong winds, suffered non-life-threatening injuries in Okinawa while another person was injured in Kagoshima prefecture.
Nearly 39,000 buildings were without power in Kagoshima while just over 12,000 were affected in Okinawa. Domestic airlines cancelled flights to and from Okinawa.
The typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 162kph with gusts reaching 216kph.
Okinawa and Amami island in Kagoshima are the main areas expected to be affected in Japan.
In China, where the typhoon is expected to make landfall between today and early tomorrow, authorities have designated Dolphin as an orange-category typhoon – the second-highest level.
Worried about the risk of flooding and landslides, authorities also raised the emergency response level for Dolphin by one notch to level III, the second-lowest level.
The typhoon is most likely to make landfall between Zhoushan city in Zhejiang province and Fuding city in Fujian province and is expected to bring winds of 38-45m per second near its centre, according to China’s National Meteorological Center.
Rain and strong winds are expected to affect eastern China through Aug 12, including parts of Shanghai and neighbouring provinces. Some areas of eastern Zhejiang could receive more than 600mm of rain.
Zhejiang raised its coastal typhoon alert to its highest level, halted port operations and suspended 162 passenger ferry routes. Fujian also suspended ferry routes.
In Taiwan, 78 international flights were cancelled because of the typhoon, the government said. Heavy rain was expected in northern parts of the island over the weekend, though authorities had not ordered evacuations as of yesterday. — Reuters
