Fierce Winds of Typhoon Dolphin Flip Truck as Storm Hits Eastern China

BEIJING/SHANGHAI — Typhoon Dolphin, the strongest tropical cyclone to strike China this year, battered the nation’s eastern coastline after making landfall in Zhejiang province. Packing maximum sustained winds near its center of 151 km/h (94 mph), the powerful storm unleashed ferocious gales and torrential rain across the region.

Among the dramatic impacts caught on camera was a heavy truck tossed onto its side by violent wind gusts along a coastal highway in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Social media video showed the massive vehicle swept over as lashing rain severely degraded visibility and driving conditions.

In anticipation of the storm's destructive path, Chinese authorities issued top-tier weather warnings and evacuated over one million people from vulnerable low-lying coastal areas, construction sites, and mountainous zones.

Typhoon Dolphin triggered widespread transport disruptions across the region as Shanghai's two major airports canceled nearly 1,000 flights, cutting operational capacity by almost 40%. On the ground, portions of coastal highways were shut down and high-speed rail services were suspended over structural safety concerns caused by strong crosswinds. At sea, offshore energy and construction operations were halted while tens of thousands of fishing vessels were recalled to port for safety.

As Typhoon Dolphin moved further inland toward provinces like Anhui, Jiangsu, and Shandong, it weakened to a tropical storm but continued to dump extraordinary volumes of water. In Shanghai, suburban districts faced severe water logging, with residents wading through knee-deep floodwaters along inundated streets.

Emergency response teams remain on high alert as meteorological officials warn that the slow-moving storm system could bring lingering torrential rain, raising risks of flash floods and landslides in central China over the coming days.

In response to the growing humanitarian and logistical crisis, national relief agencies have dispatched thousands of emergency personnel, rescue boats, and mobile power generators to the hardest-hit provinces. Temporary shelters set up in schools and sports arenas are providing displaced residents with clean water, hot meals, and medical care as local utilities work around the clock to restore electricity to hundreds of thousands of blackout-affected homes.

Meanwhile, economic analysts predict that the extreme weather will inflict heavy losses on eastern China’s agricultural sector, with vast swathes of farmland submerged just ahead of key harvest periods. Port operations and industrial supply chains across coastal hubs are also bracing for days of operational backlogs, emphasizing the long-term economic recovery that lies ahead as the storm finally dissipates.