SHANGHAI: Typhoon Chan-hom hit the Chinese coast south of Shanghai on Saturday with winds of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, as nearly one million people were evacuated and hundreds of airline flights canceled, state television reported.
The storm made landfall in Zhoushan, a city just east of the port of Ningbo in Zhejiang province. There was no word of injuries, but the broadcaster showed its reporter standing in knee-deep water in a flooded street.
More than 960,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas ahead of the storm. The provincial flood control bureau said 28,764 ships had been ordered back to port.
The national weather service said earlier the typhoon might be the strongest to strike China since the communist government took power in 1949. It initially was deemed a super-typhoon but was downgraded at midday Saturday to a strong typhoon.
The country’s railway service said more than 100 trains between the region’s cities were canceled through Sunday. Flights into and out of Zhoushan were canceled and bus services and speedboat ferry services halted. Elsewhere in Zhejiang, 388 flights were canceled in Hangzhou, 143 in Ningbo and 37 in Wenzhou. Several cities suspended inter-city bus services.
