Symbolic imageTyphoon Dolphin heads for eastern China after hitting Okinawa
Typhoon Dolphin battered Japan's Okinawa prefecture on Saturday and is now moving towards eastern China, where landfall is expected between late Sunday and early Monday. Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian have ordered evacuations and suspended work, ports and transport.
What happened
- Six people were injured in Japan: five elderly in Okinawa, three of them after falling in strong winds, one in Kagoshima.
- Power failed in nearly 39,000 buildings in Kagoshima and just over 12,000 in Okinawa.
- Dolphin carried maximum sustained winds of 162 kph, with gusts reaching 216 kph.
- Shanghai Pudong delayed 317 departures and cancelled 78 by 7pm Saturday; Hangzhou Xiaoshan cancelled 72 flights.
- China's forecasters place landfall between Zhoushan in Zhejiang and Fuding in Fujian, rating Dolphin orange, the second-highest category.
The view from outside
Reuters, carried by Turkey's Daily Sabah, adds that Taiwan cancelled 78 mostly international flights and that Beijing is preparing flood-control and evacuation plans, points absent from the Chinese and Hong Kong reporting.
What could happen next
- Rain and wind are forecast across eastern China until 12 August, with over 600 millimetres possible in parts of eastern Zhejiang.
- Ningbo Lishe airport suspends all flights on Sunday, and some Yangtze River Delta rail services are cancelled.
- Hong Kong Airlines cancelled six Hong Kong to Shanghai flights for Sunday and Monday.
- Okinawa's losses remain uncounted; one accommodation and car rental operator put his own damage at 500,000 to 1 million yen.