Tropical Storm Danas looms over China after battering Taiwan, killing two

Audio By Carbonatix

BEIJING (Reuters) -Tropical Storm Danas headed for China’s eastern seaboard on Tuesday morning, as Zhejiang province braced for landfall after the storm tore through Taiwan with record winds and torrential rain, leaving two dead and over 600 injured.

Packing winds of around 80 kmh (50 mph) at its centre, Danas is forecast to make a sharp left turn as it moves northwest across the South China Sea before striking the port city of Taizhou, prompting the local maritime authority to suspend passenger shipping and cancel over 100 voyages.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, faces growing threats from extreme weather, which meteorologists link to climate change. Risks that each year stand to wipe out tens of billions of dollars worth of commercial activity, as cities flood, shipping activity stalls, and croplands are washed out.

Authorities in Zhejiang issued a flash flood warning early on Tuesday, with forecasters expecting 100 to 250 millimetres of rain to hit the 650 km (400 miles) stretch from Fuzhou, the capital of neighbouring Fujian province, to Hangzhou, Zhejiang’s capital.

After sweeping through Zhejiang, Danas is expected to move into Jiangxi province, whose rolling hills and mountains make it particularly vulnerable to catastrophic flooding.

(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Michael Perry)