By Liz Lee, Nicoco Chan and Go Nakamura
XIANGYANG, China, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Typhoon Dolphin churned deeper inland to the central Chinese province of Hubei on Tuesday, flooding streets, forcing the closure of tourist areas and halting construction projects, as forecasters warned of extreme rainfall across a broad swathe of the country.
The strongest typhoon to hit China this year, Dolphin packed an unusually resilient storm system that travelled nearly 6,000 km (3,728 miles) before making landfall over the weekend, drenching the country’s eastern coast and bringing with it a sprawling cloud field.
The storm’s reach has extended as far as Beijing, more than 1,000 km north of Hubei. Four districts on the capital’s outskirts activated the highest level of emergency flood responses, as the city braced for the expected onset of more than one-third of its annual rainfall over 24 hours starting late on Tuesday.
Hubei, a major auto and high-tech electronics manufacturing hub and home to more than 58 million people, was just recovering from two rare tornadoes last month in the wake of Typhoon Maysak, which killed at least 11 people.
In the city of Xiangyang, where Hubei authorities issued a yellow warning for landslides and floods, pedestrians waded through water-covered streets as shared electric scooters were partially submerged.
At one crossroads in heavy rain, drivers slowed down to get their vehicles through water that was more than 30 cm deep while others turned around.
Sixty-year-old Huang, who had delayed her trip to buy groceries earlier in the morning due to the rain, looked at the waterlogged roads with concern. She was worried the floods could reach the compound of her apartment building a few hundred metres away.
“This area always gets flooded when it rains. If it continues like this, the waters could reach my home,” she said.
Nearby, rainwater gushed onto a lower-lying highway from the elevated motorbike paths on either side of the road. Authorities deployed workers in neon safety gear to remove some of the concrete and allow the water to drain faster.
At a section of another highway prone to flooding, authorities had preventively stationed a drainage truck.
WIDESPREAD TORRENTIAL RAIN
On Tuesday, the National Meteorological Center renewed an orange alert for heavy rain, the second-highest warning level, with Hubei expected to receive as much as 250 mm of rain in a 24-hour period.
As well as Xiangyang, Hubei authorities also issued yellow warnings for cities including Huanggang and Suizhou.
As of Tuesday morning, water levels at 35 reservoirs in Xiangyang had exceeded flood-control thresholds, prompting authorities to relocate 9,705 people.
Scenic areas across the province have announced temporary closures, including the popular Three Gorges Dam tourist area in Yichang. All but two of Xiangyang’s 59 major scenic spots were shut.
Of 107 major highway and waterway construction projects underway in the province, 26 projects deemed high-risk have been suspended.
Dolphin’s peripheral airflow will be forced to rise when it encounters the mountains in Hubei’s western region, causing rainfall to intensify several times over, Wang Xiaoling, deputy director of Hubei’s provincial meteorological observatory, told local newspaper Hubei Daily.
In neighbouring Henan province, authorities issued a red flash-flood alert as the storm continued to channel moisture northward. Forecasters said some areas could receive up to 350 mm of rain through Wednesday afternoon.
Japan, which was battered by Dolphin before the storm reached China, was also preparing for landslides, flooding and strong winds after the Japan Meteorological Agency said Typhoon No. 15, Chan-hom, could move across Japan’s mainland later on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Liz Lee, Nicoco Chan and Go Nakamura ; Additional reporting by Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo in Beijing, Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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