China was bracing for a super typhoon on Thursday after weeks of heavy rain killed dozens and submerged huge swathes of the country in floods. Typhoon Nepartak, which is barrelling towards Taiwan after packing winds of up to 163 mph on Wednesday, is expected to make landfall on the island early on Friday before heading towards China later in the day.
The super typhoon is set to add more misery to “an already perilous local flood situation” in China, Xinhua news agency said, as the country grapples with its worst flooding since 1998. A total of 186 people have been killed since last Friday, the China Daily newspaper said, citing authorities. China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said 41 people are missing, almost 50,000 houses collapsed and more than 1.6 million people have been relocated.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said they had put 35,000 soldiers on standby for the typhoon, while flights have been cancelled and schools and offices shut. Meanwhile, authorities in the eastern provinces of China were bracing for heavy rain and strong winds, cancelling ferry and train services while fishing boats were being ordered to return to port. The central city of Wuhan has reportedly experienced its heaviest rainfall on record and has been put on red alert by authorities, the highest of China’s four tier weather warning system.
Large parts of the city of 10 million people have been cut off and some residents are trapped in their homes. Li Keqiang, China’s Premier, visited Wuhan on Wednesday and called on soldiers to ensure that embankments along the Yangtze River were secured. Neighbourhoods along the 3,900 mile river have been threatened after water levels rose alarmingly. The China Daily said Mr Li, who was wearing a military-style camouflaged raincoat, had told soldiers “the lives of millions of people would be in peril” if the embankments were breached.
The flooding had led to alligators escaping from the Crocodile Lake Ecological Resort in Wuhu, Anhui province, on Wednesday. "More than 90 escaped and I don’t know many have been recaptured - but I can’t say all of them,” said an employee, who was surnamed Zuo, on Thursday. “But they are Yangtze alligators, which have a good temper,” he told The Telegraph. “They won’t attack people, intentionally."
Contributed by the Telegraph .
China was bracing for a super typhoon on Thursday after weeks of heavy rain killed dozens and submerged huge swathes of the country in floods. Typhoon Nepartak, which is barrelling towards Taiwan after packing winds of up to 163 mph on Wednesday, is expected to make landfall on the island early on Friday before heading towards China later in the day.
The super typhoon is set to add more misery to “an already perilous local flood situation” in China, Xinhua news agency said, as the country grapples with its worst flooding since 1998. A total of 186 people have been killed since last Friday, the China Daily newspaper said, citing authorities. China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said 41 people are missing, almost 50,000 houses collapsed and more than 1.6 million people have been relocated.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said they had put 35,000 soldiers on standby for the typhoon, while flights have been cancelled and schools and offices shut. Meanwhile, authorities in the eastern provinces of China were bracing for heavy rain and strong winds, cancelling ferry and train services while fishing boats were being ordered to return to port. The central city of Wuhan has reportedly experienced its heaviest rainfall on record and has been put on red alert by authorities, the highest of China’s four tier weather warning system.
Large parts of the city of 10 million people have been cut off and some residents are trapped in their homes. Li Keqiang, China’s Premier, visited Wuhan on Wednesday and called on soldiers to ensure that embankments along the Yangtze River were secured. Neighbourhoods along the 3,900 mile river have been threatened after water levels rose alarmingly. The China Daily said Mr Li, who was wearing a military-style camouflaged raincoat, had told soldiers “the lives of millions of people would be in peril” if the embankments were breached.
The flooding had led to alligators escaping from the Crocodile Lake Ecological Resort in Wuhu, Anhui province, on Wednesday. "More than 90 escaped and I don’t know many have been recaptured - but I can’t say all of them,” said an employee, who was surnamed Zuo, on Thursday. “But they are Yangtze alligators, which have a good temper,” he told The Telegraph. “They won’t attack people, intentionally."
Contributed by the Telegraph .
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