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Typhoon Saomai Weakens, Set to Buffet East China
A powerful typhoon which left at least seven people dead in Japan will buffet Shanghai and China's coastal Zhejiang province with strong winds and rains late on Wednesday but was unlikely to make landfall, officials said.
Typhoon Saomai, while weakening, was expected to pass within 350 km (220 miles) of the eastern Chinese coast on Wednesday evening, they said.
In Japan, the typhoon brought the nation's heaviest rainfall in a century, triggering flooding and landslides that killed at least seven people, left at least two missing and flooded almost 60,000 houses in Aichi Prefecture.
The typhoon, which passed near Japan's southernmost island of Okinawa overnight with winds of 105 mph (169 kph), was weakening and moving slowly into the East China Sea, the Weather Services Corporation said.
An official at the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said Typhoon Saomai, the 14th of the season, would bring the strongest winds to Shanghai so far this year but with less rain than previous storms.
"Winds created by Typhoon Saomai are expected to be the strongest this year because this typhoon is the largest in scope," the official said.
"But rains will be much less because the typhoon is expected to remain at sea far away from Shanghai," she added.
The previous typhoon, Prapiroon, came within 100 km (60 miles) of Shanghai in late August.
The Shanghai city government had yet to issue a warning for Saomai, but would if winds picked up significantly in the afternoon, officials said.
A flood control official in Zhejiang said the typhoon was expected to have a limited impact.
"We have made preparations for the typhoon though we expect limited impact as it is unlikely to make landfall," an official from the city of Wenzhou said.
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