China's National Meteorological Center issued a red typhoon alert — the country's most severe warning level — Sunday morning, forecasting what it called "extraordinary torrential rain" for parts of central and eastern Zhejiang. The scale of the evacuation effort underscored how seriously provincial authorities treated the storm's approach. Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangsu all activated Level 3 emergency responses ahead of landfall. The storm's passage also complicated recovery efforts in Kumamoto prefecture, which was struck by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake the week before Dolphin's arrival. National Meteorological Center chief forecaster Wang Haiping said the typhoon is now expected to track westward before slowing over central and southwestern China and gradually losing strength.