On September 15, the Meranti typhoon landed in Xiamen City, Fujian, at 3:00 AM. With an average wind speed of 180 km/h and peaks of 305 km/h, it was the strongest typhoon to hit the Fujian province since 1949. The typhoon left the city behind with severe damage to buildings, heavy floods and the water and power supply being cut off. About 600,000 trees were uprooted. Meranti caused at least 18 deaths in Fujian, with about 11 more missing.
The typhoon also caused damage to local greenhouse companies. Snow Wu of Xiamen-based greenhouse builder Trinog-xs Greenhouse Tech Co.,Ltd informed us that he and his colleagues visited several local projects of Trinog the day after the storm.
One of their customers in the area was a Chinese young plant grower. The Typhoon went right over his 1 hectare Trinog-Xs greenhouse.
The Meranti Typhoon ripped off the plastic coverings of the greenhouse
"We were happy to see that their structures were still intact", said Wu. "While neighboring tunnel greenhouses of other manufacturers all collapsed, the greenhouse structures of our customers were still standing. Aside from the plastic cover material being blown away, not much damage was caused to the structures themselves."
A Big tree fell right on top of the structure
According to Wu, this is due to the strong design of Trinog's typhoon resistant structures. "We have paid special attention to this as we are very familiar with strong winds and typhoons in our area. Extra strong steel is used and our engineers incorporate several clever strong design features in order to provide the structures with better wind resistance."
Wu explained that more Chinese growers are willing to pay for this security. "The Chinese growers that invest in new greenhouse technology are aware of the risks. Therefore they know that it is important to invest a little for the right material instead of having a lot of damage afterwards. Compared to the cost of the damage afterwards, the extra they will have pay to prevent the damage is just peanuts."
Trinog also has its own R&D facilities in the affected area. "The Typhoon also went over our R&D department. Here our European models and glass Venlo structures were unharmed by the heavy storms too. "
For more information:
Trinog-xs (Xiamen) Greenhouse Tech Co.,Ltd
Snow Wu
trinog15@trinog.cn
www.trinog.cn