Over one million people were allowed to leave their homes when tropical hurricane Lekima reached Shanghai and Zhejiang Province on Saturday. Hurricane gusts were noted at more than 50 meters per second, reports the Reuters news agency. Thousands of flights departed as a result of the weather, as did hundreds of train departures. Cars were also destroyed or covered by water bodies.
On Sunday, the death toll was as a result of the hurricane, Reuters writes, citing CCTV, Chinese state television. In total, 20 people are now dead and 20 are missing since Saturday. Several of the deaths occurred north of the coastal city of Wenzou, when the hurricane caused a landslide that caused a natural dam to collapse.
According to authorities, the hurricane has destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops and around 34,000 homes in Zhejiang Province, worth $ 14.75 billion yuan, reports the state news agency Xinhua. That equates to about $ 2 billion. Rescue efforts are reported to be on the way.
Expected to enter the province of ShandongLekima moved north on Sunday, toward the eastern parts of Shandong Province, Xinhua writes. The tropical hurricane is also expected to pull in along the Shandong coastline in the late afternoon, with strong winds and heavy showers as a result, according to China's equivalent of SMHI.