Shanghai closes schools and airports, halts operations at world’s largest port ahead of Typhoon Chanthu’s landfall

Schools from kindergartens to high schools were ordered to be shut on Monday and Tuesday to protect children and staff from the forthcoming typhoon

Flights were cancelled from 11am at the Pudong airport, which handles 1,000 flights everyday, while services were halted at the Hongqiao airfield at 3pm

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An electronic screen showing a visual plot of typhoon Chanthu at the Quezon City Emergency Operations Center in Quezon City of Metro Manila in the Philippines on 10 September 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:30pm, 13 Sep 2021Updated: 11:23pm, 13 Sep 2021

Shanghai’s municipal authorities closed schools and most public transport services, battening the hatches to prepare for Typhoon Chanthu, the most severe tropical storm to make landfall in China’s commercial hub in years. Flights were cancelled at the city’s Hongqiao and Pudong airports, while high-speed train services coming into and leaving from the city were halted, according to local media. Operations at the Yangshan deep water port, the world’s largest container harbour for the past decade just outside Shanghai, were also suspended.

“Suspension of schools and transport services are the necessary steps taken to cope with the typhoon,” said Li Qiang, the Communist Party secretary of the city of 25 million people, according a statement on the municipal government’s website. “Authorities should be fully prepared to offer relevant disaster-relief support and services.”

The typhoon, estimated to pack wind speed of up to 170 kilometre per hour near its eye, is expected to reach Shanghai on Monday night. It is likely to cause more damage than In-fa that struck in late July. The current storm system formed in early September near the Philippines, moving northwards towards the east coast of Taiwan before approaching the eastern coastline of mainland China.

High waves brought by typhoon Chanthu near the Dongsha scenic area of Zhoushan in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on September 13, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

Chanthu, which means flower in Khmer, has been used to name four typhoons since 2004. Although it was downgraded from a super typhoon to a strong typhoon on Sunday, it may still pack enough of a punch to deliver up to 28 centimetres (11 inches) of rain in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, according to the local meteorological department.

All flights out of the Pudong airfield, one of China’s major international gateways located east of the Huangpu river closer to the coast, were halted after 11am, while services at the Hongqiao airport further inland were suspended after 3pm. The Pudong airport handled about 1,000 flights everyday in November 2020, according to government data.