The typhoon made its first landfall in Yuhuan, Zhejiang province, at around 5:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, with maximum winds of 150 kilometers per hour (94 mph), according to China’s meteorological authorities. About an hour later, the storm made a second landfall in the city of Wenzhou.
The powerful storm has severely disrupted transportation across the region. In Shanghai alone, around 1,400 flights were cancelled.
Chinese authorities had earlier issued the highest-level red alert for Dolphin. However, by Monday morning, the storm had weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm.
Dolphin is now moving inland, but authorities have warned of heavy rainfall, severe flooding and landslides through Wednesday.
Heavy rain has been forecast for Monday in Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Shanghai.
Local governments have urged residents to remain indoors. Several popular tourist attractions have also been closed, including parts of Disneyland and Legoland, along with several observation platforms in Shanghai’s Bund area.
Videos broadcast by state media showed water flooding ground-floor businesses in Shanghai’s popular former French Concession area. Many people were seen walking through ankle-deep water.
Several state media outlets reported that a nine-year-old boy from Wenling, Zhejiang, went missing after being swept out to sea. Chinese authorities have not reported any deaths so far.
Forecasters said some parts of Zhejiang could receive between 250 and 500 millimeters of rainfall over the coming days.
In Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, authorities waived parking fees at all government-operated parking facilities for motorists seeking shelter from strong winds and floodwaters.
Elsewhere in the province, Wenzhou authorities evacuated around 900,000 residents and opened more than 1,000 emergency shelters. In Taizhou, approximately 390,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
In the coastal province of Fujian, maritime authorities suspended dozens of passenger ferry services. Work on more than 100 construction projects along the coast was also halted.
According to China’s state broadcaster CCTV, Dolphin traveled nearly 6,000 kilometers before making landfall. The broadcaster said the typhoon is believed to have lasted more than three times longer than an average tropical cyclone.
Meanwhile, Chinese state media reported that misinformation related to the storm was spreading rapidly online. Two people were reportedly detained for allegedly spreading misleading content.
One of those detained, a 60-year-old man, allegedly used artificial intelligence to create a fake video claiming that a person had fallen from a building in Shanghai during the storm.
The other, a 32-year-old man, allegedly edited typhoon-related videos posted by other social media users in a misleading manner.
Before reaching China, Dolphin brought heavy rainfall to the Philippines, parts of northern Taiwan and Japan’s Okinawa Islands.
The Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense said eight people had died as a result of seasonal heavy rains linked to Dolphin and several other storms that struck earlier in the week. More than 7,000 people across the country were staying in evacuation centers.
In Japan’s Okinawa, five elderly people were injured, although none of the injuries were life-threatening, according to the prefectural government. Three of the injured people fell because of strong winds.
