Super Typhoon Muifa

[Coast]

BEIJING — China battled Monday to avert a disaster at a chemical plant on its northeast coast as a severe tropical storm that has killed three people in South Korea approached, state media reported. Local residents were evacuated as workers and soldiers tried to repair a dyke protecting the Fujiahua plant in the port city of Dalian after it was breached by high waves, the official Xinhua news agency said. Muifa, which has weakened from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm, is due to make landfall in the northeastern province of Liaoning Monday evening after China's densely populated commercial hub Shanghai was spared a feared direct hit.

Torrential downpours and high winds unleashed by the storm have already wreaked havoc in Chinese coastal areas, as well as neighbouring South Korea, sparking mass evacuations. Tens of thousands of people living along China's east coast were evacuated over the weekend as Muifa approached. Chinese airlines cancelled hundreds of flights and thousands of fishing boats were ordered to stay in port, but the storm passed by the city, which suffered only some power outages and minor damage.

Muifa travelled north, drenching the eastern province of Shandong, where more than 100,000 people were moved to safety on Monday and around 20,000 fishing boats were called back to port, Xinhua said. The storm also left three people dead and one missing as it battered nearby South Korea with strong rain and winds that toppled hundreds of power lines, signposts and trees. Power was cut to 320,000 houses in southwestern provinces, while roads, port facilities and breakwaters were destroyed in dozens of places.

A 76-year-old fisherman was found dead Sunday on the southern South Korean island of Wando. A man in his 40s drowned after being swept away by stormy seas in the southern port of Busan. A 50-year-old woman was found dead Monday after falling into a flooded stream in Hwasun in the southwest and a 65-year-old man was reported missing in Busan.

Muifa is also due to hit North Korea -- which neighbours Liaoning province - on Monday night.

The impoverished state is still reeling from summer downpours and floods that have killed 30 people, destroyed more than 6,750 houses and inundated more than 48,000 hectares (120,000 acres) of farmland.

Authorities in Dandong, a border city in Liaoning, have set up more than 750 temporary shelters that are capable of accommodating more than one million people, Xinhua reported. Thousands of soldiers are also on standby to conduct rescue and relief work after the storm passes, it said.

Muifa has already destroyed nearly 170 houses and caused damage worth 1.9 billion yuan ($290 million) in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where one person went missing over the weekend after a boat sank. But so far, the storm has not caused as much damage as initially feared. Authorities had expressed concern that Muifa could cause destruction similar to that unleashed by Typhoon Saomai in 2006, which was the worst to hit China in 50 years and killed at least 450 people

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hp8xRbxpXS-BL1OoiFve1P8Nbzaw?docId=CNG.834355af7d0bc4d53959fd3efd4c9987.5d1

[Somerset Squall]

Muifa, though down to a 55kt tropical storm, is so large it is bring a lot of rains and storm surge as Coast's post describes. Landfall will occur soon over the extreme northeast of China, where the long lived Muifa (it formed two weeks ago!) will finally dissipate.

[Coast]

Blimey, Muifa seems to have been an expensive and disruptive visitor:

BEIJING — China said a tropical storm caused losses of about 3.1 billion yuan ($480 million), destroying hundreds of homes as it battered the country's east coast before slamming into North Korea on Tuesday. The Chinese weather agency said it had downgraded Tropical Storm Muifa to a depression after it made landfall in North Korea early Tuesday, avoiding a feared direct hit on China's densely populated commercial capital Shanghai further south.

The National Disaster Reduction Committee said 1.35 million people were evacuated, 600 houses destroyed and another 4,800 damaged as Muifa skirted China's eastern coast. There were no confirmed deaths in China, but one person was missing after a boat sank, and four people were killed in neighbouring South Korea. North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, reported heavy rain but gave no details of any damage or casualties. In Shanghai, hundreds of flights had to be cancelled and thousands of fishing boats were called back to port over the weekend.

US oil giant ConocoPhillips said the storm had forced it to suspend clean-up operations on a two-month-old oil spill off the coast of Shandong province. Authorities had expressed concern that Muifa could cause destruction similar to that unleashed by Typhoon Saomai in 2006, which was the worst to hit China in 50 years and killed at least 450 people. On Monday there was a brief scare after the storm destroyed a dyke protecting a chemical plant from the sea on the north-east coast but China later said workers had managed to repair it.

Thousands of soldiers were on standby to conduct rescue and relief work after the storm passes, the official Xinhua news agency said.

In Dandong, on the China side of the border with North Korea, authorities have set up more than 750 temporary shelters that are capable of accommodating more than a million people, Xinhua reported.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j82OJXuHTVp6H-oSOnXMKHEmJeAQ?docId=CNG.acce424d93fc8a31839fc35f83f0dae3.5c1

[Somerset Squall]

Would definitely agree there Coast!