UPROOTED TREES
Authorities said 414,000 people across Shanghai had been evacuated to safer locations and tens of thousands of emergency personnel were on hand to be deployed.
Uprooted trees blocked off several roads in the city centre, AFP reporters saw, and the municipal news service said cars had been smashed by flying debris.
Many streets in the city’s former French Concession turned a vivid green, carpeted with the felled boughs and leaves of the quarter’s famous plane trees.
Bicycles and rubbish bags littered the road as clean-up crews and some delivery drivers persevered against the driving rain.
Navy veteran Tang Yongkui told AFP his years at sea had made him unafraid of storms, so he had gone outside to watch.
“The wind was really strong … You couldn’t see the leaves on the trees, there was rain everywhere,” the 84-year-old said.
“But it seems in the end that Shanghai’s drainage is pretty good because by now there is no water left.”
Xiong Zhuowu, a doctor and resident of the northern Baoshan district, posted a video of a real estate agent’s sign being ripped away onto a roof in his compound.
“I feel quite nervous today, I’m constantly checking what the situation is out the window,” Xiong told AFP.
“The property management found some trees with loose roots downstairs and immediately called me to move my car.”
A government livefeed from Baoshan just after the typhoon hit showed ferocious winds ripping through a line of trees on the riverbank.
