Typhoon Dolphin Strikes China, More Than One Million People Evacuated

Typhoon Dolphin has made landfall in eastern China, prompting the evacuation of more than one million residents as powerful winds and torrential rains swept through Zhejiang province, Shanghai, and surrounding regions.

The storm first came ashore at Yuhuan, Zhejiang, at 17:30 local time (09:30 GMT) on Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 150 km/h. It made a second landfall near Wenzhou about an hour later. Chinese authorities had issued their highest-level red typhoon alert, though by Monday morning the storm had weakened to tropical storm intensity.

Massive disruptions across eastern China

In Shanghai alone, 1,400 flights were cancelled. Wenzhou authorities evacuated approximately 900,000 residents and opened more than 1,000 emergency shelters, while around 390,000 more people were displaced from the neighbouring Taizhou area. Floodwaters inundated ground-floor businesses in Shanghai's historic former French Concession district. Major tourist attractions including portions of Shanghai Disneyland and Legoland remained closed. A nine-year-old boy from Wenling was reported missing after being swept into the sea. Chinese officials had not confirmed any deaths on the mainland as of Monday morning.

Deaths and injuries across the region

At least eight people died in the Philippines due to heavy monsoon rains intensified by the typhoon, and more than 7,000 sought refuge at evacuation centres. In Japan's Okinawa, five elderly people were injured by strong gusts. Hong Kong registered a record high temperature of 36.9 degrees Celsius as the typhoon funnelled warm air toward the city.

Misinformation crackdown

Chinese authorities detained two people for spreading misinformation: a 60-year-old who created a fake AI-generated video falsely showing someone falling from a Shanghai building, and a 32-year-old who re-edited authentic storm footage in a misleading way. Typhoon Dolphin travelled approximately 6,000 km before reaching China's coast, more than three times the lifespan of an average typhoon, a longevity scientists attribute to the current strong El Nino pattern in the western Pacific.