Super Typhoon Wipha Strikes China

(21/09/07)

• Tropical Storm Wipha was upgraded to a powerful, category 4, super typhoon on Monday, September 17, 2007. Winds reached 180 mi/hr. • On Tuesday, weather forecasts called for Wipha to head towards China’s economically booming eastern province of Zhej. • Shanghai, China’s commercial hub of 20 million people, began preparing for the potentially devastating effects of storm surge, heavy rain fall, strong winds, and landslides generated by Wipha. • Shanghai closed schools, ferries, and other transport systems. • The seriousness of the threat led Shanghai officials to make the decision to evacuate 1.6 million people in Shanghai, Zhejiang, and neighboring Fujian Province. to shelters, • 30,000 ships and boats were used to move the people to shelters. • Wipha, the most destructive decade in a decade, caused economic losses estimated at $638 million    Click here to download a PowerPoint Presentation with more details on this Event