More than a million people have been evacuated in China because of Typhoon Dolphin, The Guardian reports. Intense downpours could trigger wider flooding and landslides.
Some 900,000 people had to be evacuated in the coastal city of Wenzhou. More than 1,500 emergency shelters were opened for them.
In neighboring Fujian, 98,900 people were evacuated, and in Shanghai about 215,000.
Weather stations in central Shanghai recorded about 313 millimeters of rain over 24 hours. It is the highest daily total in more than 150 years of records. Another station recorded 400 mm of precipitation.
Dolphin quickly weakened into a tropical storm, but it continues to move and is bringing heavy rain. Authorities warned that rainfall through Wednesday could lead to landslides.
Due to the weather conditions, two Shanghai airports canceled more than 1,300 flights. Flights were also canceled in Taiwan, where the storm brought powerful winds on Sunday.
Dolphin came from Japan’s eastern prefecture of Okinawa, where it injured six people and left 50,000 buildings without power. In the Philippines, the storm intensified seasonal monsoons and led to flooding in the Luzon region, including near Manila.
“Scientists say that global warming has increased the likelihood of extreme weather, including a greater number of powerful typhoons,” the journalists noted.