Over one million evacuated as Typhoon Dolphin makes landfall in eastern China
More than one million people have been evacuated across eastern China following the landfall of Typhoon Dolphin, which struck Zhejiang province on Sunday evening packing maximum sustained winds of 150 km/h.
The system slammed into Yuhuan before making a second landfall in Wenzhou shortly after, forcing emergency relocations and widespread transport shutdowns.
Meteorological authorities downgraded Dolphin to a tropical storm on Monday morning, but critical warnings remain active for severe urban flooding, torrential downpours, and landslides across eastern provinces through Wednesday.
The severe weather triggered massive transport disruptions, including the cancellation of 1,400 flights in Shanghai alone. In Wenzhou, officials relocated roughly 900,000 residents and opened over 1,000 emergency shelters, while Taizhou evacuated 390,000 people.
In Shanghai, urban flooding submerged ground-floor businesses in high-traffic tourist areas, prompting major attractions like Disneyland and Legoland to halt operations.
In Fujian province, maritime agencies suspended dozens of passenger ferry routes and shut down over 100 offshore construction projects.
Search operations are underway in Wenling, Zhejiang, for a nine-year-old boy who remains missing after being swept into the sea. Chinese state media also confirmed the arrest of two individuals accused of fabricating and spreading AI-generated misinformation about storm casualties online.
Before striking mainland China, the storm system intensified monsoon conditions across the region, causing eight deaths in the Philippines and injuring five elderly residents in Okinawa, Japan.
