Shanghai braces for direct hit from Typhoon Bebinca

15/9/2024 16:23

        Shanghai halted transportation links, recalled ships and shut tourism spots including Shanghai Disney Resort on Sunday as it braced for Typhoon Bebinca, in what could be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Chinese financial hub since 1949.
        
        The Category 1 typhoon, packing maximum sustained wind speeds near its centre of around 144 kilometres per hour, was about 500 kilometres southeast of Shanghai as of 1:00 p.m. It is expected to make landfall along China's eastern coast after midnight on Monday.
        
        The strongest storm to make landfall in Shanghai in recent decades was Typhoon Gloria in 1949, which tore through the city with gusts of 144 kph. Shanghai was last threatened by a direct hit in 2022 by the powerful Typhoon Muifa, which instead landed 300 km away in the city of Zhoushan, in Zhejiang province.
        Shanghai is typically spared the strong typhoons that hit further south in China, including Yagi, a destructive Category 4 storm that roared past southern Hainan province last week. But Shanghai and neighbouring provinces are taking no chances with Category 1 Bebinca.