Muifa Weakens As It Approaches China
August 7, 2011 by UPI - United Press International, Inc.
BEIJING, Aug. 8 (UPI) — Typhoon Muifa weakened Monday as it turned north, targeting the coastal areas of China’s Shandong province.
The powerful storm, spawned in the west Pacific, headed toward China and North Korea.
Authorities had canceled several flights at Qingdao city airport in Shandong, Xinhua news agency reported.
About 53 tourists, stranded on an island off Qingdao, were rescued Sunday by police after a portion of the bridge linking the island to the city remained submerged under water.
Authorities also began evacuating workers from the off-shore platforms of Shengli Oilfield, China’s key oil production base located near Weihai, the state-run news agency said.
Forecasters said the storm threatened to hit Shandong Peninsula.
More than 610,000 people had been evacuated from Shanghai, the country’s financial capital, and the provinces of Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong, Xinhua reported.
“Typhoon Muifa didn’t create severe damage in [Shanghai], but it did affect some districts closer to the coast, such as Fengxian and Nanhui,” the head of the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said.
In Zhejiang, the rain and strong winds knocked down 169 houses and destroyed hundreds of tons of harvested crops and tens of thousands of tons of aquatic products, China Daily reported.
In South Korea, Muifa pounded the country’s west coast, leaving at least one person dead and two others missing, Yonhap News Agency reported. The meteorological agency said the storm was expected to hit Seoul and Incheon late Monday.
You can opt-out at any time. We protect your information like a mother hen. We will not sell or rent your email address to anyone for any reason.
