Typhoon weakening as it heads north
Source: Xinhua |
August 8, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TYPHOON Muifa is weakening as it moves toward the country's key northeastern ports after forcing the evacuation of 610,000 residents on its course along the densely-populated east coast, authorities said yesterday.
Muifa, bringing gusts of wind up to 178 kilometers per hour, was moving north at 25kph toward the Shandong Peninsula where it was expected to make landfall this morning near the port of Weihai before heading to the port of Dalian and nearby areas, national and local meteorological centers said.
Crews working on off-shore platforms in the Shengli Oilfield, China's key oil production base near Weihai, began to evacuate yesterday.
The oilfield, operated by China Petrochemical Corporation, has 102 platforms which extract oil from 524 wells with a daily output of 8,000 tons, according to the Shengli Oilfield Administration.
If the rainfall brought by Muifa exceeds 100 millimeters, water in 50 out of about 140 large and medium-sized reservoirs in Shandong Province may overflow, said Du Changwen, head of the provincial water resources bureau.
Disaster relief teams were on standby in Dalian, a key industrial port in northeastern Liaoning Province.
In Beijing, an emergency meeting chaired by Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei, also deputy head of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, was held yesterday to arrange prevention measures.
The headquarters ordered two more provinces - Jilin and Heilongjiang in the northeast - to beef up disaster relief efforts.
More than 610,000 people were evacuated from dangerous areas in Shanghai and the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Shandong, the country's disaster relief agency said. More than 62,700 vessels were ordered to dock.
In Shandong, the local weather forecast bureau said the typhoon might further weaken into a tropical storm when it lands.
Even so, authorities continued to order about 20,000 fishing boats to lay anchor in harbors.
Maritime authorities also requested vessels to either leave or stay clear from those parts of Shandong's coast most likely to be hit hardest by the typhoon.
Also in Shandong, 18 flights departing or arriving at the Qingdao airport on the coast were canceled yesterday. Most were bound for southern cities, such as Shanghai or Hangzhou.
Police rescued 53 tourists who were briefly stranded on an island off Qingdao as surging water submerged the rock bridge linking it to the mainland.
In Dalian, authorities ended an annual beer festival two days ahead of schedule.
Muifa, originally a powerful typhoon, swirled into the East China Sea on Friday morning. High wave warnings were issued for coastal provinces.
Maritime officials in Zhejiang Province late Saturday reported that 35 fishing boats with 300 crew, which had earlier been reported missing off the coast of Shandong, had been found off Zhejiang's coast. The boats were tugged to Zhoushan and everyone on board was safe, officials said.
In Zhejiang, rain and strong winds triggered by the typhoon brought down 169 houses, destroyed 3,500 tons of crops and 121,300 tons of aquatic products.
Muifa, bringing gusts of wind up to 178 kilometers per hour, was moving north at 25kph toward the Shandong Peninsula where it was expected to make landfall this morning near the port of Weihai before heading to the port of Dalian and nearby areas, national and local meteorological centers said.
Crews working on off-shore platforms in the Shengli Oilfield, China's key oil production base near Weihai, began to evacuate yesterday.
The oilfield, operated by China Petrochemical Corporation, has 102 platforms which extract oil from 524 wells with a daily output of 8,000 tons, according to the Shengli Oilfield Administration.
If the rainfall brought by Muifa exceeds 100 millimeters, water in 50 out of about 140 large and medium-sized reservoirs in Shandong Province may overflow, said Du Changwen, head of the provincial water resources bureau.
Disaster relief teams were on standby in Dalian, a key industrial port in northeastern Liaoning Province.
In Beijing, an emergency meeting chaired by Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei, also deputy head of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, was held yesterday to arrange prevention measures.
The headquarters ordered two more provinces - Jilin and Heilongjiang in the northeast - to beef up disaster relief efforts.
More than 610,000 people were evacuated from dangerous areas in Shanghai and the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Shandong, the country's disaster relief agency said. More than 62,700 vessels were ordered to dock.
In Shandong, the local weather forecast bureau said the typhoon might further weaken into a tropical storm when it lands.
Even so, authorities continued to order about 20,000 fishing boats to lay anchor in harbors.
Maritime authorities also requested vessels to either leave or stay clear from those parts of Shandong's coast most likely to be hit hardest by the typhoon.
Also in Shandong, 18 flights departing or arriving at the Qingdao airport on the coast were canceled yesterday. Most were bound for southern cities, such as Shanghai or Hangzhou.
Police rescued 53 tourists who were briefly stranded on an island off Qingdao as surging water submerged the rock bridge linking it to the mainland.
In Dalian, authorities ended an annual beer festival two days ahead of schedule.
Muifa, originally a powerful typhoon, swirled into the East China Sea on Friday morning. High wave warnings were issued for coastal provinces.
Maritime officials in Zhejiang Province late Saturday reported that 35 fishing boats with 300 crew, which had earlier been reported missing off the coast of Shandong, had been found off Zhejiang's coast. The boats were tugged to Zhoushan and everyone on board was safe, officials said.
In Zhejiang, rain and strong winds triggered by the typhoon brought down 169 houses, destroyed 3,500 tons of crops and 121,300 tons of aquatic products.
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