Typhoons make Mid-Autumn Festival a washout on China’s east coast
Typhoon Meranti makes landfall as holiday starts, Malakas follows behind
Storms made for a wet and windy Mid-Autumn Festival on China’s east coast, with Typhoon Meranti hitting on Thursday and Typhoon Malakas expected to bring more heavy rain on Sunday as many people head back to work.
Meranti had left at least 28 people dead – including 18 in Fujian province – and 15 missing on the east coast by yesterday, according to Xinhua.
Meteorological authorities said Malakas, the 16th typhoon this year, was moving at up to 20km/h towards the east coast and expected to bring gales and heavy rain to coastal parts of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, as well as northern and central Taiwan, before heading towards Japan on Saturday might.
Authorities issued a yellow weather alert, the third-highest warning in the four-tier scale.
Saturday was the last day of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival and many mainlanders are expected to return to work on Sunday. But the threat of bad weather from Malakas forced some rail authorities in southern China to reduce train speeds or suspend services.