BEIJING: Typhoon Dolphin churned deeper inland to the central Chinese province of Hubei on Tuesday, flooding streets, forcing the closure of tourist areas and halting construction projects, as forecasters warned of extreme rainfall across a broad swathe of the country. Parts of Beijing, including its Shunyi district, northeast of the main financial area, also saw severe flooding by Tuesday evening with rains forecast to intensify overnight.
The strongest typhoon to hit China this year, Dolphin packed an unusually resilient storm system that travelled nearly 6,000 km before making landfall over the weekend, drenching the country's eastern coast and bringing with it a sprawling cloud field. Downgraded to a tropical depression on Tuesday afternoon, the storm's reach extended as far as Beijing, more than 1,000 km north of Hubei.
The National Meteorological Centre renewed an orange alert for heavy rain, the second-highest warning level, with Hubei expected to receive as much as 250 mm of rain in a 24-hour period. Hubei, a major auto and high-tech electronics manufacturing hub and home to more than 58 million people, was just recovering from two rare tornadoes last month in the wake of Typhoon Maysak, which killed at least 11 people. — Reuters
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