Tropical Storm Danas looms over China after battering Taiwan, killing two
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A man riding a scooter past traffic lights that were knocked down by Typhoon Danas in Chiayi city in Taiwan on July 7.
PHOTO: AFP
BEIJING – Tropical Storm Danas headed for China’s eastern seaboard on the morning of July 8, as Zhejiang province braced itself for landfall after the storm tore through Taiwan with record winds and torrential rain, leaving two dead and more than 600 injured.
Packing winds of around 80kmh at its centre, Danas is forecast to make a sharp left turn as it moves north-west across the South China Sea before striking the port city of Taizhou, prompting the local maritime authority to suspend passenger shipping and cancel more than 100 voyages.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, faces growing threats from extreme weather, which meteorologists link to climate change.
These risks each year stand to wipe out tens of billions of dollars worth of commercial activity, as cities flood, shipping activity stalls and croplands are washed out.
The authorities in Zhejiang issued a flash flood warning early on July 8, with forecasters expecting 100mm to 250mm of rain to hit the 650km stretch from Fuzhou, the capital of neighbouring Fujian province, to Hangzhou, Zhejiang’s capital.
After sweeping through Zhejiang, Danas is expected to move into Jiangxi province, whose rolling hills and mountains make it particularly vulnerable to catastrophic flooding. REUTERS
