Typhoon Haikui forces 1.8m to relocate

BEIJING - The arrival of typhoon Haikui has resulted in the evacuation of 1.8 million people in East China's Zhejiang Province and Shanghai Municipality, local civil affairs authorities said Wednesday.

More than 1.54 million people have been evacuated in Zhejiang and 252,000 residents have been relocated in Shanghai following Haikui's landing in central Zhejiang early Wednesday morning.

The local observatory said the storm has brought large downpours and flooding, stranding hundreds of people.

The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs initiated an emergency response Wednesday after sending work teams to the region to direct relief work on Tuesday.

Local authorities have allocated funds for disaster relief and are monitoring the storm around the clock.

Haikui is the third typhoon to wallop China's eastern coast in a week after storms Saola and Damrey tore through the region and left at least 23 people dead over the weekend.