Chinese authorities have evacuated more than one million people from their homes in eastern China, including Shanghai, as Typhoon Dolphin made landfall.
The storm brought heavy rain and disrupted transportation across the region, with nearly 1,000 flights cancelled in Shanghai alone on Monday.
Although authorities have downgraded Dolphin to a tropical storm, they continue to warn of torrential rain, severe flooding and landslides through Wednesday as the storm moves north.
Authorities had earlier issued the highest-level red alert for Dolphin, describing it as the strongest storm to hit China this year.
The typhoon recorded maximum wind speeds of 150km/h (94mph) when it first made landfall in Yuhuan, Zhejiang Province, at 17:30 local time on Sunday. It made a second landfall in Wenzhou about an hour later, according to meteorological authorities.
Heavy rain was forecast on Monday across Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Shanghai.
Authorities have advised people to avoid outdoor activities, while several major tourist attractions remain closed. These include parts of Disneyland and Legoland, as well as several viewing platforms along Shanghai’s Bund.
State media footage showed ground-floor businesses flooded in Shanghai’s former French Concession, a popular tourist area, with people wading through ankle-deep water.
Several state media outlets reported that a nine-year-old boy from Wenling in Zhejiang was missing after being swept into the sea. Chinese officials have not reported any deaths.
Parts of Zhejiang could receive between 250mm and 500mm of rain over the next few days, forecasters said.
In Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang, authorities have waived parking fees in public spaces for drivers seeking shelter from strong winds and floodwaters.
Elsewhere in the province, Wenzhou authorities relocated about 900,000 residents and opened more than 1,000 emergency shelters. About 390,000 people were also evacuated from their homes in Taizhou.
In Fujian Province, maritime authorities suspended dozens of passenger ferry routes and halted more than 100 offshore construction projects.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV said the storm travelled about 6,000km before making landfall, giving it a lifespan more than three times that of an average typhoon. It also reported that Dolphin had a large circulation and intense rainfall capacity.
Misinformation about the storm has also spread rapidly online in China. State media reported that two people had been detained for distributing false content.
One of them, a 60-year-old man, allegedly created an AI-generated video claiming that someone in Shanghai had fallen from a building during the storm.
In the Philippines, eight people have died from heavy monsoon rains linked to Dolphin and storms earlier in the week, according to the Office of Civil Defence. More than 7,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centres.
In Japan’s Okinawa, five elderly people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the prefectural government. Three of them fell because of strong winds.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s weather observatory recorded a temperature of 36.9C on Sunday as the typhoon swept warm air over the city.
Typhoon season in the western Pacific typically runs from May to October, when such storms are more common.
This year is a strong El Niño year, which experts say can contribute to more intense typhoons.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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