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Typhoon Knocks Out Power to Some Homes in Shanghai as It Weakens Inland

A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
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Typhoon Knocks Out Power to Some Homes in Shanghai as It Weakens Inland

A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)

The strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since at least 1949 knocked out power to some homes and injured at least one person as it swept over the financial hub Monday.

More than 414,000 people had been evacuated by Monday ahead of the powerful winds and torrential rain. Schools were closed and people were advised to stay indoors. More than 60,000 emergency responders and firefighters were at hand to lend aid in Shanghai, according to state media.

Flights, ferries and train services were suspended in Shanghai and in neighboring provinces, disrupting travel during China’s three-day Mid-Autumn Festival. Shanghai’s airports canceled more than 1,400 flights starting Sunday and through Monday, while in Hangzhou, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) southwest of Shanghai, authorities also canceled more than 180 flights.

Typhoon Bebinca made landfall around 7:30 a.m. in the sprawling Pudong business district with winds of 151 kph (94 mph) near its center. It weakened as it moved inland, dousing parts of Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.

The winds uprooted or damaged more than 10,000 trees, knocked out power for at least 380 households, damaged four houses and injured at least one person, according to state media reports. It was unclear how or where the person was injured.

At least 53 hectares (132 acres) of farmland were flooded.

Weather authorities expected Shanghai and parts of neighboring provinces to receive up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) of rainfall between Monday and Wednesday.

Shanghai, which has 25 million people, is rarely hit by strong typhoons, which usually make landfall further south in China.

Typhoon Yagi hit China’s southern Hainan island earlier this month and has caused devastation in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar, Yagi caused at least 74 deaths with dozens missing. Four deaths were reported in Hainan, at least 10 have died in Thailand and 20 in the Philippines.

Vietnam has reported more than 230 people killed in the typhoon and subsequent flooding and landslides, with dozens more still missing.

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2 Private Lunar Landers Head Toward the Moon in Roundabout Journey

The Blue Ghost Mission 1 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA's Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 15 January 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
The Blue Ghost Mission 1 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA's Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 15 January 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
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2 Private Lunar Landers Head Toward the Moon in Roundabout Journey

The Blue Ghost Mission 1 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA's Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 15 January 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
The Blue Ghost Mission 1 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA's Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 15 January 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH

In a two-for-one moonshot, SpaceX launched a pair of lunar landers Wednesday for US and Japanese companies looking to jumpstart business on Earth’s dusty sidekick.
The two landers rocketed away in the middle of the night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the latest in a stream of private spacecraft aiming for the moon, The Associated Press reported. They shared the ride to save money but parted company an hour into the flight exactly as planned, taking separate roundabout routes for the monthslong journey.
It’s take 2 for the Tokyo-based ispace, whose first lander crashed into the moon two years ago. This time, it has a rover on board with a scoop to gather up lunar dirt for study and plans to test potential food and water sources for future explorers.
Lunar newcomer Texas-based Firefly Aerospace is flying 10 experiments for NASA, including a vacuum to gather dirt, a drill to measure the temperature below the surface and a device that could be used by future moonwalkers to keep the sharp, abrasive particles off their spacesuits and equipment.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost — named after a species of US Southeastern fireflies — should reach the moon first. The 6-foot-6-inches-tall (2-meter-tall) lander will attempt a touchdown in early March at Mare Crisium, a volcanic plain in the northern latitudes.
The slightly bigger ispace lander named Resilience will take four to five months to get there, targeting a touchdown in late May or early June at Mare Frigoris, even farther north on the moon’s near side.
“We don’t think this is a race. Some people say ‘race to the moon,’ but it’s not about the speed,” ispace’s founder CEO Takeshi Hakamada said this week from Cape Canaveral.
Both Hakamada and Firefly CEO Jason Kim acknowledge the challenges still ahead, given the wreckage littering the lunar landscape. Only five countries have successfully placed spacecraft on the moon since the 1960s: the former Soviet Union, the US, China, India and Japan.
“We’ve done everything we can on the design and the engineering,” Kim said. Even so, he pinned an Irish shamrock to his jacket lapel Tuesday night for good luck.
The US remains the only one to have landed astronauts. NASA’s Artemis program, the successor to Apollo, aims to get astronauts back on the moon by the end of the decade.
Before that can happen, “we’re sending a lot of science and a lot of technology ahead of time to prepare for that,” NASA's science mission chief Nicky Fox said on the eve of launch.
If acing their respective touchdowns, both spacecraft will spend two weeks operating in constant daylight, shutting down once darkness hits.
Once lowered onto the lunar surface, ispace’s 11-pound (5-kilogram) rover will stay near the lander, traveling up to hundreds of yards (meters) in circles at a speed of less than one inch (a couple centimeters) per second. The rover has its own special delivery to drop off on the lunar dust: a toy-size red house designed by a Swedish artist.
NASA is paying $101 million to Firefly for the mission and another $44 million for the experiments. Hakamada declined to divulge the cost of ispace’s rebooted mission with six experiments, saying it's less than the first mission that topped $100 million.
Coming up by the end of February is the second moonshot for NASA by Houston-based Intuitive Machines. Last year, the company achieved the first US lunar touchdown in more than a half-century, landing sideways near the south pole but still managing to operate.