China’s national observatory issued a red alert, the most severe warning level, on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, as Typhoon Muifa is expected to make landfall twice later in the day-the first in coastal areas between Sanmen County and Zhoushan City in Zhejiang Province around nightfall, and the second in coastal areas between Jiaxing City in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai’s Pudong District on Wednesday evening, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 130 km/h (80 mph).
Shanghai has upgraded its typhoon emergency response to Level III, the third-highest, as Muifa moved closer to Shanghai.
As of Wednesday morning (LT), more than 1 900 ships had returned to port, and two tourist attractions and two parks had been temporarily closed. The city had also assigned personnel to inspect dikes, construction sites and other areas as Shanghai braced for the typhoon.1
All flights at Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao airports were canceled, while the city of Hangzhou to the southwest of Shanghai will halt domestic flights from the evening.
Flights at Zhoushan and Ningbo airports, in the coastal province of Zhejiang, were also canceled, while the ship bunkering hub shared by both cities temporarily suspended discharging and loading oil, and ordered tankers to stay at anchorages.2
In east China’s Zhejiang Province, the local flood control and typhoon and drought relief headquarters upgraded the typhoon emergency response to Level I -the highest level- on Tuesday afternoon, September 13.
A total of 11 680 fishing boats had returned to port in the province by Tuesday noon.
More than 719 800 people had been evacuated to safe places by Wednesday morning.
