Typhoon Dolphin, the strongest storm to strike China so far this year, came ashore on the country’s eastern coast Sunday evening, unleashing heavy rain and powerful winds that forced more than a million residents from their homes and triggered widespread flood and landslide alerts.
The storm made landfall near Yuhuan in Zhejiang province with sustained winds equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane. Before striking China, Dolphin had already lashed Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, injuring six people and knocking out power to tens of thousands of buildings.
Authorities across eastern China took extensive precautions ahead of landfall, pulling offshore workers to safety, ordering vessels back to port, and stepping up inspections of reservoirs, mountain streams and construction sites prone to slides. In Shanghai alone, more than 500 small and medium vessels were moved to shelter, over 30,000 residents were evacuated, and roughly 1,500 flights were grounded, snarling travel for thousands of passengers.
China’s water resources ministry warned that several major rivers in the region, including the Qiantang and Yong, could see significant flooding, with smaller waterways in the hardest-hit areas also expected to breach warning levels. Forecasters said parts of Zhejiang could see up to 500 millimeters of rainfall, with the deluge expected to persist as the storm tracks westward and gradually weakens over central and southwestern China in the coming days.
Officials cautioned that the greatest danger may still lie ahead, as prolonged heavy rain raises the risk of flash flooding and landslides in mountainous terrain and along smaller rivers even after the storm’s winds subside.
