Strongest typhoon since 1949 hits Shanghai and knocks out power to some homes

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since at least 1949 flooded roads with water and broken tree branches, 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 ahead of the powerful winds and torrential rain. Schools were closed and people were advised to stay indoors.

One elderly man was injured by a falling tree on Shanghai's Chongming Island, according to state media. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.

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.

Torrential rains flooded roads in the district, according to images broadcast by state media. Elsewhere in Shanghai, uprooted trees and fallen branches blanketed some roads and sidewalks. As the typhoon eased, responders cleared branches and other objects blown around by the storm.

More than 60,000 emergency responders and firefighters were at hand to lend aid in Shanghai.

Authorities said winds uprooted or damaged more than 10,000 trees and knocked out power for at least 380 households, damaging four houses.

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

The typhoon weakened as it moved inland, dousing parts of Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.

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

Flights at Shanghai’s airports resumed Monday afternoon as the storm moved away.

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 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.

Associated Press researcher Henry Hou in Beijing contributed to this report.

Tourists carrying umbrella tour the West Lake in the rains brought by Typhoon Bebinca during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang province, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

Tourists take shelter in pavilions from the rains brought by Typhoon Bebinca during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang province, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a policeman directs a motorist as authorities temporary close a road at Lingang new area of the China Pilot Free Trade Zone ahead of the landfall of Typhoon Bebinca in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Fang Zhe/Xinhua via AP)

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, stranded passengers gather near a closed ferry ahead of the landfall of Typhoon Bebinca in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Chen Haoming/Xinhua via AP)

A motorist rides past a quiet road intersection as Typhoon Bebinca made landfall in Shanghai, China, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

A man carrying an umbrella walks by fallen tree branches along a street in the aftermath of Typhoon Bebinca in Shanghai, China, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

Policemen closed a road as fallen trees along a street in the aftermath of Typhoon Bebinca in Shanghai, China, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

A firefighter stands near debris along a business street in the aftermath of Typhoon Bebinca in Shanghai, China, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a ferry terminal is closed as they brace for impact from Typhoon Bebinca, in Xiangshan County, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Jiang Han/Xinhua via AP)

Typhoon hits Shanghai with 94-mph winds after 400,000 people were evacuated

Typhoon hits Shanghai with 94-mph winds after 400,000 people were evacuated

A view of pink cloudy skyline is seen in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

Days after the state’s primary, California voters are in a familiar position -- waiting to find out which candidates will go on to the general election in their most high-profile races, for governor and Los Angeles mayor.

It’s not surprising those have yet to be resolved, along with several closely contested congressional races, because the state routinely takes days, or even weeks, to fully tally races. Nor is it unusual for President Donald Trump to complain about the pace of the count and allege fraud, as he did Thursday. It’s something he’s done repeatedly in the past.

What was unusual was that Trump announced that his Department of Justice was investigating the count: “Why the vote counting DELAY???,” the president posted on his social media account.

He suggested that the state's Democrats were somehow cheating so two candidates he favors — Republican Steve Hilton in the governor's race and Spencer Pratt in the nonpartisan mayor's race — would be bumped from the top two slots and therefore ineligible for the November general election.

“You see what’s happening in California, they’re rigging the election," he told reporters during an Oval Office gathering Thursday.

Trump's posts prompted a response from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose press office posted a clip of a CNN video explaining how the nation’s most populous state prioritizes accuracy and accessibility over speed, drawing out the count.

“For the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too,” Newsom’s office posted.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment about whether it was investigating the ballot counting.

The law in California practically mandates a drawn-out count. Ballots are mailed to every eligible voter — some 23 million of them — and the state has permissive rules for returning them. They will be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at an election office within seven days.

Only after the polls have closed and most of the country has gone to sleep can local election workers begin the lengthy process of verifying the legitimacy of the late-arriving mail ballots and then start to tabulate them.

If a voters' signature on the ballot envelope doesn't match what's on file, election officials are required to give those voters a chance to come in and prove their identity so the ballot will count, delaying a final tally further.

“We might not like how California administers its elections (and I don’t),” wrote Stephen Richer a former Republican election official in Maricopa County, Arizona, on the social platform X. “But that doesn’t make it fraud.”

Last year, Newsom signed a bill requiring the vote count to be completed within 13 days, rather than the previous 30 days. To get an extension, counties must inform the Secretary of State's Office that they have a reason for a delay.

That's not quick enough for the president: “The Dumocrats are at it again!” the president wrote on his social media platform. “They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”

State Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Democrat who wrote the bill to accelerate ballot counting, said Trump’s comments were disappointing and “a lie.”

“While Trump is laser focused on lying about our elections and undermining voters’ faith in our democracy, so that Republicans can then try to pass policies like Voter ID laws that make it harder for people to vote, our priority is to make sure that every validly cast ballot is counted,” he said in a statement.

Some experts warned that the count from Tuesday's primary might take even longer than after previous elections.

“What compounds things this time around is that Democrats have been holding on to their ballots,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor.

The state's millions of Democrats this year were exceptionally slow to send in their ballots, apparently waiting until the last minute to make a selection in the ever-evolving governor's race. The state operates a primary in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, move on to the general election, and Democrats had been fretting for months that having so many Democrats in the race would splinter the vote in such a way that two Republicans would claim the top two spots.

Democratic voters appeared to wait until the end to see which of their candidates were emerging as favorites. The high number of late ballots will likely make the delay in getting final counts even greater.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber issued a statement Thursday saying the state's priority was ensuring the tally is done correctly. “Accuracy comes before speed,” she said.

While millions of ballots have been counted by now, it's the uncounted ones that loom largest for close races.

Despite being an overwhelmingly Democratic state, California has featured some of the nation's closest congressional elections, sometimes decided by just a few hundred votes, so there's often no way to determine a winner until the weekslong ballot count has concluded. In 2024, one House race wasn't called until December.

Things get even more complicated in a primary election, such as Tuesday's. That's because the news isn't just the top vote-getter but also the second place finisher. To know the true outcome of any race, enough votes need to be tallied to know for certain who finished in first and second.

Another side effect of the enormous crush of late mail ballots that get tallied last is that the final vote gets more and more Democratic. That's because Republicans are more likely to return their ballots early or vote in person, on Election Day. Those ballots get counted first.

The gradual shifting of the vote to Democrats as ballot counting goes on has sparked all sorts of conspiracy theories.

Republicans have long complained about the California count, even though the GOP did well in close House races in the state in 2024. The Republican National Committee filed lawsuits in other states challenging the legality of counting mail ballots that arrive after Election Day and the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rule on the issue sometime this month.

But worries about the California vote count aren't only a partisan issue. Voting advocates have urged state lawmakers to better fund local election offices so they can process the avalanche of late-arriving ballots faster.

“The Legislature needs to throw a lot more money to get the count quicker,” Hasen said.

Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Sophie Austin in Sacramento contributed to this report.

Ballots are inspected the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Ballots are sorted the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Workers sort ballots the day after California's primary election at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)