Shanghai soaked as typhoon heads along coast

Typhoon Muifa pounded China's commercial capital of Shanghai with high winds and heavy rain Sunday while more than 400,000 residents along the country's east coast were moved to shelter and tens of thousands of fishing boats recalled to port.

Just south of the city, Zhejiang province moved 330,173 people from its coastal areas while another 80,400 were evacuated in Fujian province further down the coast, according to local government websites. More than 30,000 ships along the eastern coast were also called back to shore, they said.

Typhoon Muifa is forecast to hit China early Monday morning, making landfall in the eastern province of Shandong and skimming the coast as it heads north, China's Central Meteorological Administration said.

On Sunday morning, the storm was about 186 miles (300 kilometers) east-northeast of Shanghai, moving northwest over the East China Sea at about 15 miles (23 kilometers ) per hour, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

Shanghai, China's commercial hub, saw high winds and heavy rain on Sunday that downed power lines and wrecked a dozen billboards.

Dozens of flights in and out of Shanghai and the nearby cities of Wenzhou and Hangzhou were canceled as a precaution and more than 500 people evacuated from Shanghai's coastal areas. The municipal government said rail authorities were also prepared to slow or delay high-speed rail services, depending on the severity of the storm.

Last week, Typhoon Muifa killed four people in the Philippines even though it did not make landfall. The storm caused power outages and injuries as it passed by Japan's southern island of Okinawa on Friday and dusted northern Taiwan with light rain and moderate winds.

Japan's Kyodo News agency said the typhoon caused 27 injuries on Okinawa and knocked out power to more than 60,000 homes.

North Korea's state news agency reported that some parts of the country would receive heavy rain from the typhoon between Monday and Tuesday. Flooding in recent weeks has caused deaths and damage to homes and farmland in the impoverished country.

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