In a day marked by anxiety and urgent action, Shanghai stood at the crossroads of a tropical storm and a powerful offshore earthquake—but responded with swift, calculated decisions to protect its people.
Early Wednesday morning, Tropical Storm Co-May made landfall in Zhoushan, a key port city in Zhejiang province. The winds, though not as violent as those in a full typhoon, brought heavy downpours and forceful gusts to Shanghai and its surrounding regions.
An Emergency Response in Motion
With precision and care, local authorities evacuated more than 280,000 people, prioritizing lives above all. At the city’s airports, 640 flights were grounded—410 at Pudong and 230 at Hongqiao. Ferry services were halted completely. Across highways, speed limits were slashed to below 60 km/h as slick roads and flooding raised safety concerns.
In just six hours, Shanghai was hit with up to 100 mm of rain—equal to a month’s rainfall. City officials braced for flash floods and waterlogging in the downtown area. Parks and zoos closed their gates, though major attractions like Disneyland and Legoland remained open with weather-based ride suspensions.
The Tsunami Alert That Shook the Coast
As if the storm weren’t enough, residents were stunned by a tsunami warning triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, more than 4,000 km away. Initial warnings from China’s National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said the quake could bring “disastrous impacts” to cities like Shanghai and Zhoushan.
But by noon, Shanghai’s earthquake agency reassured residents that the worst-case scenario had been avoided. Water levels might still rise up to 180 cm in coastal areas, but they would remain below critical danger levels in the city.
Trains Slowed, Lives Spared
Rail services in parts of eastern China were suspended or slowed down, as safety protocols kicked in. The storm had its second landfall closer to Shanghai in the afternoon, with winds reaching 83 km/h at the center of Co-May.
This isn’t Shanghai’s first brush with nature’s fury, but it’s a reminder of how quickly things can escalate—and how community readiness, fast information, and responsive governance can make all the difference.
