Authorities in the northern Chinese port city of Qingdao have shut beaches and piled sandbags along its waterfront in preparation for Typhoon Muifa, BBC reported. The region’s most powerful storm in years is forecast to hit the Shandong peninsula near Qingdao early on Monday. Further south, the financial capital of Shanghai avoided a direct hit, though strong winds downed power lines and blew away billboards.
More than 300,000 people were evacuated and thousands of ships called ashore. Muifa has already left four people dead in the Philippines and 27 injured on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
