Typhoon Dolphin Floods Central China, Beijing on Alert

China (GNP): Typhoon Dolphin churned deeper into the central Chinese province of Hubei on Tuesday, flooding streets, forcing the closure of tourist areas and halting construction projects as forecasters warned of extreme rainfall across a broad stretch of the country. Described as the strongest typhoon to hit China this year, Dolphin carried an unusually resilient storm system that travelled nearly 6,000 kilometres before making landfall over the weekend, drenching the country’s eastern coast with a sprawling cloud field.

The storm’s reach has extended as far as Beijing, more than 1,000 kilometres north of Hubei. Four districts on the capital’s outskirts activated the highest level of emergency flood response as the city braced for more than one-third of its annual rainfall to fall within 24 hours starting late Tuesday. Hubei, a major hub for auto manufacturing and high-tech electronics that is home to more than 58 million people, was still recovering from two rare tornadoes last month in the aftermath of Typhoon Maysak, which killed at least 11 people.

In the city of Xiangyang, where authorities issued a yellow warning for landslides and floods, pedestrians waded through water-covered streets as shared electric scooters were partially submerged. At one crossroads, drivers slowed to navigate water more than 30 centimetres deep while others turned back rather than attempt the crossing. A 60-year-old resident named Huang, who had delayed a grocery trip earlier in the day because of the rain, said the area always floods when it rains and expressed concern that continued rainfall could reach her apartment compound a few hundred metres away.

Elsewhere in the city, rainwater gushed onto a lower-lying highway from elevated motorbike paths on either side of the road, prompting authorities to deploy workers in safety gear to clear concrete and speed up drainage. At another flood-prone section of highway, a drainage truck had been stationed in advance as a precaution.

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On Tuesday, the National Meteorological Center renewed an orange alert for heavy rain, the second-highest warning level, with Hubei expected to receive as much as 250 millimetres of rain within a 24-hour period. Beyond Xiangyang, authorities in Hubei also issued yellow warnings for the cities of Huanggang and Suizhou. Water levels at 35 reservoirs in Xiangyang had exceeded flood-control thresholds as of Tuesday morning, prompting the relocation of 9,705 people.

Scenic areas across the province announced temporary closures, including the popular Three Gorges Dam tourist area in Yichang, while all but two of Xiangyang’s 59 major scenic spots were shut. Of 107 major highway and waterway construction projects underway in the province, 26 deemed high-risk have been suspended. Wang Xiaoling, deputy director of Hubei’s provincial meteorological observatory, said Dolphin’s peripheral airflow would be forced upward as it encounters mountains in the province’s western region, a process expected to intensify rainfall several times over.

In neighbouring Henan province, authorities issued a red flash-flood alert as the storm continued channelling moisture northward, with forecasters warning that some areas could receive up to 350 millimetres of rain through Wednesday afternoon. Japan, which was battered by Dolphin before the storm reached China, was also preparing for landslides, flooding and strong winds after the Japan Meteorological Agency said a separate storm, Typhoon Chan-hom, could move across the country’s mainland later on Tuesday.