Em Xangai

TO prepare for the center of typhoon Wipha hitting Shanghai during evening rush hour tomorrow, the city will evacuate up to 200,000 residents from coastal areas, mobile homes and dilapidated houses.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau issued an orange alert, second highest alert in the four-grade system, at 6:10am today for Wipha, which was upgraded to a super typhoon this morning.

Wipha is expected to land in northcentral Zhejiang Province between tonight and tomorrow morning and keep move northwards to hit Shanghai directly.

The power of Wipha will surpass Typhoon Saomai in 2005 to become the heaviest typhoon to hit the city since 1997.

The storm will bring the winds of up to 88 kilometers an hour, and up to 50 millimeters of rain in 12 hours to the city, the bureau has said.

The typhoon will last for two or three days. Winds along the mouth of the Yangtze River and coastal areas are expected to reach up to 102kmh.