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on september 20, vehicles drove on a flooded road on longhao road in jinshan district, shanghai. typhoon prasang, the 14th typhoon this year, brought severe rainfall to shanghai after it landed, with rainfall at some observation stations breaking historical records. xinhua news agency

from strong winds to heavy rains, two typhoons landed in succession in less than four days, putting shanghai through a severe test.

around 7:30 am on september 16, the center of this year's no. 13 typhoon "bebejia" (strong typhoon level) made landfall in lingang, pudong, becoming the strongest typhoon to make direct landfall in shanghai since records began in 1949.

around 21:45 on september 19, the center of typhoon prasang made a second landfall on the coast of fengxian. although its intensity was only tropical storm level, it brought a lot of trouble to shanghai.

affected by the heavy rainfall brought by the typhoon, in the early morning of the 20th, fengxian district of shanghai and some streets and towns in pudong new area issued a red warning for heavy rain. employers can take measures such as temporary suspension of classes, work, transportation, flights, parks, and businesses.

on the 20th, shanghai encountered heavy rain, lightning, waterlogging, tornadoes... every typhoon is a "tough battle". for shanghai, how can it hone the resilience of a megacity in such a "comprehensive test"?

heavy rain meets morning rush hour

the center of this year's 14th typhoon "prasang" made landfall on the coast of daishan county, zhoushan city, zhejiang province at 6:50 pm on september 19, and made a second landfall on the coast of fengxian district, shanghai around 21:45 on the 19th. when it landed, the maximum wind speed near the center was 9, with an intensity of tropical storm level.

september 20, huinan district, pudong. file photo

although the wind force of "prasang" seems not strong, the rain it brings is quite powerful.

at about 6 a.m. on september 20, ms. ju, who lives in kangqiao, pudong, received a text message from her son's class teacher. affected by the outer circulation of typhoon prasang, pudong new area issued a red warning for heavy rain in central and southern taiwan at 5:16 a.m. on september 20. if it is difficult to travel, parents can tell the teacher and the child can skip school that day.

"considering that although the children don't have to go to school, the adults still have to go to work, i decided to send the children to school and take the subway to work in lujiazui." ms. ju said that she didn't expect that her rain boots and pants would be completely soaked in water after walking almost 1 kilometer from lujiazui subway station to the company. the deepest part of the road was even above the knees. "it's not an exaggeration to say that the sky was leaking." ms. ju said.

at around 6 a.m., the shanghai meteorological observatory issued a yellow rainstorm warning signal, and at around 7 a.m., the rainstorm warning signal was updated to orange, and shanghai's city-wide flood and typhoon prevention level ii (secondary) response was initiated.

on the 20th, social media platforms were filled with "live reports" of flooded roads, broken-down vehicles, and first-floor homes being flooded, with rescue workers rushing to the front.

on september 20, a video circulated online showing a lot of water outside exit 2 and exit 3 of the shanghai swimming pool station, which caused netizens to make fun of it.

during the morning rush hour, a photo of deep water at the entrance of shanghai swimming pool station was widely circulated on social media. netizens joked, "passengers, please pay attention, shanghai swimming pool station has really arrived, please exit the station in an orderly manner to swim"; "shanghai swimming pool station has arrived, open the right door, passengers who want to swim, please change into swimsuits and exit the station from exit 3 to swim"...

at around 10 a.m. on september 20, the water at exit 2 of the shanghai swimming pool station had been basically drained. photo by li jiawei, a reporter from the paper

at around 10 a.m., the paper reporter saw at the shanghai swimming pool station that drainage was being repaired at exits 2 and 3 of the station, and there was no water on the sidewalks on the shoulders of the road. workers were speeding up the pumping. at around 10:45 a.m., chen qing, head of the water affairs section of the xuhui district construction management committee, told reporters that the water outside the shanghai swimming pool station has been completely drained. the main reason was the excessive instantaneous rainfall. since the early morning of the 20th, the heaviest rainfall in xujiahui area was nearly 100 mm in 2 hours.

at noon on the 20th, at the intersection of nanyuan road and hunan highway in huinan town, workers from the municipal maintenance company were seen draining water on site. photo by the paper reporter jiang lelai

from 2:00 to 12:00 on the 20th, heavy to torrential rain fell across shanghai, with heavy rain in most parts of pudong and fengxian, and extremely heavy rain in situan town, fengxian.

among them, the 6-hour precipitation at pengzhen water conservancy station in nicheng town, pudong was 308.0 mm, and the 6-hour precipitation at yangjiazhai meteorological observation station in the fourth regiment of fengxian was 327.7 mm. these are the largest 6-hour precipitation in shanghai since 1978 when complete hourly precipitation observation data was available.

on the morning of september 20, water accumulated on the road along tangcheng street in fengcheng town, fengxian district. photo provided by the interviewee

in response to urban waterlogging, the water department immediately dispatched 28 mobile pump trucks to support fengxian, pudong and other severely flooded areas in draining water; all sluice gates were opened to drain water, taking advantage of the low tide to lower the water level of the river and ensure smooth drainage; the transportation department closed 21 underpasses; the municipal fire rescue corps dispatched 181 special drainage vehicles to drain water.

don't let rumors spread

sometimes, rumors can spread faster than a typhoon.

on the morning of september 20, a netizen shared a photo of the fengxian district drainage management office on a social platform. the photo showed that a large amount of water was pouring into the fengxian district drainage management office, which attracted attention.

the pictures circulated online are actually old pictures taken after a typhoon passed through a few years ago.

the reporter of the paper verified with the fengxian district water affairs bureau that the photos circulated online were actually old photos taken after a typhoon passed through a few years ago and had nothing to do with the rainfall impact brought by typhoon prasang. in addition, the fengxian district drainage management office stopped working here three years ago and moved to a new location. the land parcel of the old site of the office in the photo has now been completed and is now an open space after being leveled. the land parcel will be sold on the land market in the future.

the fengxian district water affairs bureau stated that in september 2024, typhoons "bebejia" and "prasang" successively affected shanghai. both typhoons brought heavy rainfall, but there was no water accumulation at the fengxian district drainage management office, either at its current or old site.

"this picture can be seen every year during typhoons. the impact of rumors lasts longer than typhoons," said netizen mr. jiang.

a video shot by netizens near the lupu bridge on the huangpu river shows that river water is flowing back, which is actually the water replenishment cofferdam of rihui port.

coincidentally, a netizen shared a video shot near the xuhui riverside of the huangpu river that day, which showed river water backflowing.

in response, the shanghai flood control office said: the video was taken at the water replenishment cofferdam of rihui port, which is 4.5 meters high and used to replenish water to rihui port during high tide. the flood control wall responsible for flood control is behind it, with a height of 6.5 meters, and flood control safety is not affected.

rumors stop with the wise and stop before they happen.

on the afternoon of the 20th, typhoon prasang made a comeback and turned northeast in jiangsu. its rainstorm clouds swept across shanghai again.

on september 20, a tornado was photographed by netizens in qingpu district, shanghai.

on the afternoon of the 20th, a netizen posted that he saw a tornado in qingpu, shanghai. in response, the shanghai meteorological bureau said that at 15:30, the chief on duty noticed the "tornado vortex" feature in the radar image and immediately organized the forecasters on duty to conduct research and judgment, believing that the probability of a tornado was high. at 15:37, the qingpu district meteorological observatory was instructed by telephone to issue a yellow warning signal for strong winds. after further confirmation of the "tornado vortex" feature, the qingpu district meteorological observatory was instructed to upgrade and issue an orange warning signal for strong winds at 15:47, and the minhang district meteorological observatory was instructed to issue an orange warning signal for strong winds at 15:48, both pointing out that "tornadoes may occur locally."

the meteorological department explained that tornadoes are formed in an unstable environment with large low-altitude wind shear. in the residual cloud system of a typhoon, the wind on the ground has become smaller, while the wind in the boundary layer (500-1500 meters) is often stronger, so tornadoes are prone to occur frequently.

after that, five districts, including pudong, baoshan, minhang, qingpu and chongming, issued orange gale warnings, reminding citizens that tornadoes might occur locally.

"this is great. respond quickly and don't give rumors a chance to grow. typhoons are uncontrollable, but with proper response, rumors can be completely eliminated," said ms. yang, a citizen.

soft protection

every typhoon is a "tough battle", but there is always some soft protection.

from 4:00 a.m. on september 20, more than 40 firefighters from the jianghai fire rescue station of the fengxian district fire rescue brigade were on duty, and four water pump fire trucks were pumping water in various places in the area. they rushed from one nursing home to another, and the drainage work lasted for more than 10 hours. "although the rain is light, our work pace has not slowed down." at about 14:00 that day, the wind had stopped and the drizzle was falling. firefighter wang yongchao simply answered a few questions and continued to pump water.

police officer zhang qihui photo provided by the police

at 4:48 a.m. that day, the integrated command room of wanxiang police station in pudong new area received a call from elevator maintenance worker mr. yu, saying that an elderly man was trapped in the basement elevator in zhuyuan community, xiang'an road, and could not get out. the water had already reached his shoulders.

police officer zhang qihui rushed into the basement without hesitation with life-saving equipment, climbing up the fire-fighting equipment and feeling his way in. at that time, the water was about a head's distance from the ceiling. zhang qihui, who was 1.9 meters tall, quickly located the trapped person based on the call for help and put a lifebuoy around him.

the trapped old man was unable to climb out of the basement by himself due to psychological tension and being trapped for a long time. zhang qihui held the old man with one hand and climbed the fire-fighting equipment with the other hand to find the exit of the basement. with the help of everyone, the 79-year-old man was successfully rescued.

near jinqiao station on shanghai metro line 9, two men drove tricycles and laid wooden planks to help people cross the muddy road. photo provided by the interviewee

early in the morning on the 20th, xiaoju, who was going to work in the rain, encountered a "city boat" at the entrance of jinqiao metro station on metro line 9: two uncles were like "rainstorm ferrymen", using tricycles to transport people across a section of concrete road.

xiaoju took a photo of the scene with her mobile phone. the tricycle was carrying seven or eight "passengers" who were squatting close together in the van, holding umbrellas. she didn't know where the two kind-hearted people came from or what they did. "looking at their appearance, i guess they might be construction workers of the elevated highway. they came to help us in such a heavy rain. whether they were arranged or came to do this voluntarily, i feel very warm and grateful to them."

amid strong winds and heavy rain, early in the morning of the 20th, pudong new area and fengxian district issued school suspension notices for 16 and 5 towns in the district respectively, involving a total of 334 schools and 280,000 students.

luwan no. 1 central primary school took out performance and exhibition clothes for students who did not bring spare clothes from home in advance. photo provided by the school

however, most schools did not suspend classes. in order to help students who came to school on that day to "quickly finish their work", teachers in various schools came up with many methods.

a canopy has been set up at the entrance of luwan no. 1 central primary school in huangpu district. because of the heavy rain, the school allowed parents who usually send their children to the school gate to temporarily enter the hall today to change their children's wet clothes and shoes and socks. luwan no. 1 central primary school also took out performance costumes and exhibition clothes for some students who did not bring change of clothes from home in advance.

some parents said that it was raining heavily, and in order to avoid places with a lot of water, teachers and parent volunteers carried the children into the school one by one at the door. after entering the classroom, the teachers took turns using hair dryers to help the children blow dry their wet clothes and hair. "on the way to work, i received a message from the teacher saying that the children had been blown dry," said parent ms. lin.

in the evening of the 20th, a pink-purple sky appeared in shanghai. shanghai weather release map

after a day of unpredictable weather changes, many shanghai netizens took photos of the pink and purple sky in the evening of the 20th. the meteorological department explained that after the rain, the atmosphere was rich in water vapor, which scattered the sunlight to varying degrees, leaving more warm-toned light, forming the "magical" sky that everyone saw.

at 18:50 that day, shanghai lifted the blue warning signal for heavy rain. from 20:30, the public security traffic police department lifted the previous temporary control measures on relevant highways in the city and restored normal traffic on the roads.

at present, shanghai is still recovering its normal production and living order at an accelerated pace, and the resilience of this megacity has undergone another "training". no matter what the next test is, how to make the city safer and more livable will be an eternal topic.