Wet start to holiday as storm approaches

Ke Jiayun and Xu Lingchao

THE first two days of the National Day holiday are expected to bring heavy rain under the effect of Severe Tropical Storm Mitag, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau announced yesterday, as the flood prevention authority urged all government bodies of the city to prepare for the joint impact of the gale, downpour, and high tide.

The storm will sweep the city tomorrow and weaken from Wednesday.

According to the weather bureau, at 8am yesterday, the center of Mitag was about 1,450 kilometers southeast to Shanghai, moving northwest at a speed of 25 kilometers per hour, packing maximum winds of 100 kph. It will grow stronger into a typhoon or severe typhoon.

The bureau expects Mitag to pass northeastern Taiwan tonight and turn northward. Late tomorrow afternoon, it will pass close to central or northern Zhejiang Province.

As a result, the first two days of the National Day break will see torrential rain and gales with winds around 90 kph.

The situation in coastal areas such as the Yangshan DeepWater Port will be worse as the wind speed is expected to reach 150 kph.

The flood prevention authority warned of high tides when Mitag hits Shanghai, which means the water level of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek will be higher than usual, even if it doesn’t rain.

As the city is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, flags and banners hung across the city will definitely be affected by the gales. The greenbelts around the city are also expected to be confronted by hostile weather.

Inspections will be carried out at places like Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall and Xintiandi, as well as underground spaces and construction sites.

The Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal, Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park, Jinshan City Beach, the Bihaijinsha Beach in Fengxian District will be temporarily closed if the weather becomes too severe, the authority added.

After Mitag leaves on Thursday and Friday, the city will be dominated by high pressure and clouds.

On the weekend, a cold front will bring temperatures down by 4 to 5 degrees Celsius.

The bureau said the arrival of meteorological autumn this year is likely to be after the weekend, later than usual.

In the past four months, Shanghai had more precipitation, a longer and wetter plum rain season, stronger typhoons and more heavy rainstorms. Precipitation between June and September reached 921.2 millimeters, around 50 percent more than the normal 614 millimeters during this period.

Eight stormy days with rains of 50 milliliters or more were recorded, second only to 1999’s 10 days in city’s weather history. MORE than 50 mass events will be held across the city during the holiday, and police have detailed security measures for each of them.

Extra patrols will crack down on pickpockets, with police controlling the number of tourists in key areas, including the Bund and Lujiazui.

Police said there will be no fireworks show in the Bund area during the holiday. Drones may not fly over the Bund, Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall and Lujiazui without approval.

To address traffic congestion, police helicopters will monitor the busiest expressways. On the G40 Expressway, extra officers will keep an eye on the traffic THE power load in the city during the National Day break is expected to reach 16.6 million kilowatts, according to the State Grid Shanghai Company.

While people enjoy their holidays, the state grid will have more than 1,600 workers and engineers on standby 24 hours a day during the break. and deal with accidents.

Peak days for road traffic out of the city will be September 30, October 1 and October 2, while the peak days for traffic into the city will be the last three days of the holiday.

The most crowded expressways are expected to be G2, G40, G50, G60, G15 and G1501 expressways.

Meanwhile, the section of National Highway 228 in Shanghai opened to traffic yesterday.

Stretching 15.5 kilometers, the highway runs through Jinshan and Fengxian districts. It has three fast lanes for cars and a bicycle lane in each direction.

National Highway 228 will eventually run from the northeast Jilin Province to Guangdong Province in the south.

The company has prepared emergency teams for possible unstable power supplies brought by Tropical Storm Mitag.

Over 100 buildings along the Huangpu River from Yangpu to Nanpu bridges will be lit up at night to celebrate the nation’s birthday. Another 360 laser and beam lights as well as 670 street lamps will shine through the night for the holiday.