City contends with impact of Bebinca

Workers remove a fallen tree on Hengshan Road in Shanghai on Monday. Typhoon Bebinca, the 13th typhoon of the year, made landfall on the city's coast at 7:30 am. (CHEN HAOMING/XINHUA)

Despite the lingering impact of the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Shanghai since 1949, life and traffic were resuming gradually on Monday. As the center of typhoon Bebinca left Shanghai at noon, the all-out preparations and efforts made by people from all walks of life had paid dividends.

Bebinca, the 13th typhoon of this year, hit Shanghai's Lin-gang Special Area in Pudong New Area early on Monday morning with wind speeds reaching 42 meters per second, surpassing typhoon Gloria to become the strongest to hit Shanghai in 75 years, said the National Meteorological Center. No deaths had been reported in Shanghai as of press time.

On Monday, the second day of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, residents who stayed at home on the advice of the city government uploaded videos showing strong winds and heavy rain, as well as fences blown down, trees uprooted, and power being cut off in some communities.

More than 414,000 people had been relocated across Shanghai and 811 ships had been evacuated as of early morning on Monday, according to the Shanghai Flood Control Headquarters.

The authorities in the city pulled out all the stops to ensure that all those evacuated were taken care of, such as by providing hot lunches to the relocated and delivering meals to elderly residents.

Jin Shuigen, a 78-year-old man in the city's Jinshan district, was delivered a hot lunch by community volunteers on Monday. Jin was not alone, as dozens of seniors living in Fengpu community and many other neighborhoods around the city received lunches from community volunteers on Monday morning.

Community officials called the seniors in the morning asking them not to leave their homes and promised to deliver the food by lunchtime, said Fan Chunying, a person in charge of the community's senior people's dining.

Over 8,420 emergency calls were received by Shanghai Fire and Rescue by noon on Monday, in response to clear risks such as fallen trees and other obstacles, according to Shanghai-based newspaper Youth Daily.

Flights at Shanghai's two airports resumed on Monday afternoon after the center of typhoon Bebinca moved away from the city, according to Shanghai Airport (Group).

The first flights of the day arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 1:43 pm and 2:11 pm, respectively, and departures of flights from the two airports resumed at 3 pm, marking the recovery of traffic at the city's two airports.

More than 40 percent of the two airports' capacity was affected on Monday, according to a notice published by Shanghai Airport (Group) on Sunday night.

As of 6 pm on Monday, the Shanghai Meteorological Service had lifted the typhoon alert as Bebinca had left Shanghai and entered Jiangsu province.

As of 6 am on Monday, 46,300 people had been relocated across Jiangsu and over 20,000 vessels had taken shelter from the typhoon, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters. The province has mobilized more than 130,000 inspection personnel in total, with 33,500 conducting dike inspections and risk assessments.