JINAN - More than 360,000 people were evacuated in east China's Shandong Province on Monday as tropical storm Muifa continues to move along the country's eastern coast.
More than 20,000 fishing boats were called back to harbor by early Monday morning, local authorities said.
No casualties in the province have been reported yet.
According to the provincial meteorological observatory, the storm, which weakened from a powerful typhoon on Sunday, has unleashed torrential rains in the coastal areas of Shandong, soaking as many as 85 counties and villages with precipitation levels of 50 to 100 mm.
The storm was located about 50 km southeast of the province and was moving north at a speed of 25 km per hour as of 11 a.m. Monday.
Muifa, the ninth typhoon to hit China this year, swirled into the East China Sea on Friday morning.
It is predicted to skirt the Shandong Peninsular and land somewhere between north China's Liaoning Province and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday evening.
A total of 756 temporary shelters have been set up in Liaoning's border city of Dandong, according to the Liaoning flood control and drought relief headquarters. The shelters are capable of accommodating over 1 million people, the headquarters said.
All passenger liners shuttling between port cities of Dalian in Liaoning and Yantai in Shandong suspended services.
Six thousand military personnel are prepared to conduct rescue and repair work after the storm has passed, the headquarters said.
In the neighboring province of Jilin, the storm is expected to bring high winds and heavy rains, said Wang Xiaoming, head of the provincial meteorological observatory.
Local governments have been ordered to take precautions against any natural disasters that might occur as a result of the storm, he said.
A 400-strong team of rescue personnel, as well as more than 90 boats and three helicopters, has been mobilized to help with post-storm rescue efforts in the northern port city of Tianjin, according to the city's maritime authorities.
The storm moved along China's eastern coast on Sunday, downing power lines, billboards and trees in Shanghai and forcing the evacuation of 312,000 of the city's residents.
No deaths have been reported so far
SHANGHAI / QINGDAO, Shandong - Typhoon Muifa, the ninth typhoon to hit China this year, weakened as it approached the coastal areas of Zhejiang province on Sunday morning, before it turned north to the coastal area of Shandong province.
Eighteen flights departing from or arriving at Qingdao airport on the coast were canceled on Sunday. Most of those flights were headed for southern cities, such as Shanghai or Hangzhou.
Using ropes, police rescued 53 tourists, who were briefly stranded on an island off the port of Qingdao as surging waters submerged a rock bridge linking it to the mainland.
Rizhao, a coastal tourist city in Shandong province, has ordered the closure of all scenic spots and seawater pools to prevent accidents.
Crews working on the off-shore platforms of Shengli Oilfield, China's key oil production base located near Weihai, started to evacuate Sunday.
About 400 migrant laborers from Sichuan province, who were living along the coast in Qingdao, were transferred in an urgent operation on Sunday to nearby primary and middle schools.
The local community service center and the neighborhood committee helped to move the workers on Sunday as the powerful typhoon threatened to hit Shandong Peninsula.
At an emergency meeting before the arrival of the typhoon, Xia Geng, mayor of Qingdao, emphasized that emergency measures must focus on the safety of local residents and tourists. He said that people must be evacuated from danger areas.
With the peak tourist season on now, major tourist activities, especially in the open air, were to be stopped immediately, and delivery of daily living supplies had to be guaranteed, he said.
Warnings about the coming typhoon and the dangers of open-air activities were sent as phone messages, and frequent weather forecasts were broadcast to locals.
All preparations for the 21st Qingdao International Beer Festival, which begins next Saturday, have been halted.
The Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, the world's longest cross-sea bridge which recently opened to traffic, was closed as the typhoon drew closer on Sunday night.
If the rainfall brought by Muifa exceeds 100 millimeters, water in 50 out of about 140 large and medium-sized reservoirs in Shandong may overflow, said Du Changwen, head of the provincial water resources bureau.
Xinhua News Agency reported more than 610,000 people were evacuated from threatened areas in Shanghai and the provinces of Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong, the country's most affluent and populated areas. More than 62,700 vessels were also ordered to dock in these areas.
No deaths have been reported so far.
The National Meteorological Center said on Sunday that moving at a speed of 25 km/h, Typhoon Muifa was likely to hit land at the eastern part of Shandong Peninsula early on Monday morning.
Muifa, which had been expected to reach land at Shanghai, still caused problems in the city over the weekend.
Despite preparations, gales and rain affected 54 electrical power lines and more than 58 trees in Xuhui, Changning districts, fell and blocked roads.
"Typhoon Muifa didn't create severe damage in the city, but it did affect some districts closer to the coast, such as Fengxian and Nanhui," said Fu Yi, chief executive officer of Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.
In Zhejiang, the rain and strong winds triggered by the typhoon brought down 169 houses, destroyed the harvest of 3,500 metric tons of crops and 121,300 metric tons of aquatic products.
Direct economic losses were estimated at 1.87 billion yuan ($289.9 million)， according to the provincial disaster relief agency.
A construction ship carrying seven people that berthed close to Zhoushan, in Zhejiang province, sank on Saturday. Six crew members were rescued and one was missing, local media reported.
Strong winds caused an electrical wire to come loose, cutting the power supply to more than 300 residents in Ningbo.
According to the flood control headquarters of Zhejiang province, by Sunday more than 330,000 people had been evacuated from the province's coastal areas and 30,000 vessels had been forced to return to the port to shelter from the wind.
The tourism industry was also affected in the country's coastal areas.
The 13th China International Beer Festival in Dalian, Liaoning province, was closed on Saturday, two days earlier than the original schedule, to prevent unexpected damage.
An emergency meeting chaired by Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei, also deputy head of the country's disaster relief agency, was held on Sunday in Beijing to arrange prevention measures.
The agency ordered two more provinces - Jilin and Heilongjiang in the Northeast - to increase disaster relief efforts as the typhoon headed toward them.
