Shanghai Faces Down Typhoon Wipha

by Janet Ritz
Stormchaser John

Almost three million people were evacuated from Shanghai in China as Typhoon Wipha made landfall on the country's eastern coast:

A total of 2.7 million people were evacuated from coastal or flooded areas and unsafe housing in Shanghai and other areas affected by the storm, Xinhua said.

The storm destroyed thousands of houses, wrecked fish ponds and disrupted power to more than 100 communities, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and provincial officials reported.

Preliminary estimates put the damage at $638 million. Link.

Nine are known to have died, two that had not left and were electrocuted during landfall. What had not been left to the storm: The two point seven million of its citizens that were evacuated from the path of the winds and the flooding from the foot of rain that had fallen even before the storm had arrived.

This was happening at the same time that the world's religious leaders are gathering in a melting Greenland to pray that they can raise attention to the dangers of climate change.

The residents of Shanghai were likely praying for the same thing.Here's the link to the BBC report and the CNN update.