'Super typhoon' heads for China’s financial hub

Source: MSNBC/Reuters

SHANGHAI - A powerful typhoon targeted China’s booming eastern province of Zhejiang and financial hub Shanghai on Tuesday, prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of people as ships and boats were called back to port.

Typhoon Wipha was 270 miles southeast of the former foreign treaty port of Wenzhou in Zhejiang at 3 a.m. GMT. With gusts of up to 123 miles per hour, it was moving northwest at 12 miles per hour, Xinhua news agency said, putting it on a course to skirt Taiwan.

“East China, including the commercial hub of Shanghai, is preparing for what may be the most destructive typhoon in a decade,” the agency said.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20829511/

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COuld mess up the world markets today.

china can move 200,000 people with little problems, here we just let them take their chances

it went past my house today, just some slight rain for us, no big whoop here.

(I was hoping for a 'typhoon day' holiday--no such luck, had to work)

ethnocentric I know, but kick for other world inhabitants

Source: AP

SHANGHAI, China - A typhoon expected to be the most powerful storm to hit China in a decade churned toward the densely populated coast on Tuesday with 165 mph wind gusts, and the government evacuated 1.6 million people.

The fringes of Typhoon Wipha lashed northern Taiwan, where schools, offices and the stock market closed. A construction worker was killed when the storm's winds knocked down scaffolding, Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center said.

City authorities ordered schools closed Wednesday in Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million and China's financial hub. Chinese state-run television showed families being evacuated from their fishing boats and other vessels. Shopkeepers stacked sand bags to prevent flooding as drains clogged amid torrential rains.

The typhoon, whipping up waves up to 36 feet high, was moving northwest toward the Chinese mainland. Weather reports forecast it would make landfall south of Shanghai early Wednesday morning.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_re_as/asia_typhoon;_ylt=AjdSd008y.XRvPUVDL2kavGs0NUE

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I wish them luck and as few lives lost to this monster storm as possible.

They're typically not as powerful as Atlantic Basin hurricanes, but to every rule, exceptions . . .

Perhaps we should try it some day.

Source: Yahoo

SHANGHAI, China - A typhoon expected to be among the most powerful storms to hit China in years churned toward the densely populated coast on Tuesday with 165 mph wind gusts, and the government evacuated 1.8 million people.


The fringes of Typhoon Wipha lashed northern Taiwan, where schools, offices and the stock market closed. A construction worker was killed when the storm's winds knocked down scaffolding, Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center said.

City authorities ordered schools closed Wednesday in Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million and China's financial hub. Chinese state-run television showed families being evacuated from fishing boats and other vessels. Shopkeepers stacked sand bags to prevent flooding as drains clogged amid torrential rains.

The typhoon, whipping up waves up to 36 feet high, was moving northwest toward the Chinese mainland.

By midnight local time, the typhoon appeared to be weakening and looked likely to hit land early Wednesday further south of Shanghai than originally forecast, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing local meteorologists.

Wipha, a woman's name in Thai, was upgraded from a tropical storm Monday. With wind gusts of up to 165 mph, local meteorological officials said earlier it could be the most destructive storm to hit the Shanghai area in years.

"The typhoon is very likely to develop into the worst one in recent years," said a man who answered the phone at the city's meteorological bureau. As is common with Chinese officials, the man identified himself only by his surname, Fu.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_re_as/asia_typhoon

Wow. Let's see, how many people lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit? Hmmmm. America: not so good at evacuations. You did a helluva job, Brownie!

That's impressive.

Source: AFP

Two million evacuated as typhoon hits China

19/09/2007 03h27

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Typhoon Wipha slammed into China's densely populated east coast on Wednesday, sparking the evacuation of around two million people and threatening the financial hub Shanghai.

The storm made landfall in Zhejiang province overnight with winds up to 100 miles (160 kilometres) an hour, state media said, and churned toward Shanghai amid warnings it could be the most destructive typhoon to hit here in a decade.

The China Meteorological Administration said the typhoon was expected to move north-northwest, bringing torrential rains to the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian, Jiangsu and the Shanghai region.

Although the weather was fine in Shanghai early on Wednesday, the financial metropolis battened down the hatches, closing schools and advising it could halt trading on the city's stock exchange if the weather worsened. It ordered the evacuation of 291,000 people from low-lying areas and called ships and ferries back to port, according to the Shanghai Daily.

Read more: http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070919032058.cm601yl0.html

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Gosh, I wish we could do that too.

Bush is like, well, screw you, for now. MKj

I hope this doesn't mean delays in getting more poisoned goods from my local Wal-Mart!

Having a bit of trouble getting the feel of the place?

hmmmm...