Typhoon Hits China; 1 Million Evacuated

BEIJING (AP) -- Typhoon Chan-hom hit the Chinese coast south of Shanghai on Saturday with winds of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, as nearly 1 million people were evacuated and hundreds of airline flights canceled, state television reported.

The storm made landfall in Zhoushan, a city just east of the port of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, China Central Television reported. There was no word of injuries, but the broadcaster showed its reporter standing in knee-deep water in a flooded street.

More than 960,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas ahead of the storm, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The provincial flood control bureau said 28,764 ships had been ordered back to port by late Friday.

The national weather service said earlier the typhoon might be the strongest to strike China since the communist government took power in 1949. It initially was deemed a super-typhoon but was downgraded at midday Saturday to a strong typhoon.

The country's railway service said more than 100 trains between the region's cities were canceled through Sunday.

Flights into and out of Zhoushan were canceled and bus services and speedboat ferry services halted. Elsewhere in Zhejiang, 388 flights were canceled in Hangzhou, 143 in Ningbo and 37 in Wenzhou, according to CCTV.

Several cities suspended inter-city bus services.

Earlier, Chan-hom caused 20 injuries as it moved over islands in southern Japan, Kyodo news agency reported, citing the Okinawa prefecture government.

The storm dumped rain on the northern Philippines and Taiwan, where several flights were suspended. The stock market and public offices were closed Friday in Taipei, Taiwan's capital.

Chan-hom is the second major storm to hit China this week, after Typhoon Linfa forced 56,000 people from their homes in the southern province of Guangdong province.

(KA)