Typhoon Bavi makes landfall in eastern China, and more than a million people have been evacuated
Typhoon Bavi made landfall in eastern China’s Zhejiang province late Saturday evening, prompting mass evacuations and widespread disruptions after battering the islands of southern Japan and Taiwan with heavy rains and strong winds.
Authorities said the storm is expected to gradually weaken as it moves inland toward the northwest.Chinese officials evacuated more than 1.7 million people from at-risk areas before the typhoon arrived, while Shanghai moved about 34,000 residents from at-risk areas. Coastal cities in Fujian Province also intensified emergency measures, with thousands moved to safe areas and more than 17,000 rescue personnel placed on standby.The National Meteorological Center issued an orange alert for the typhoon, the second highest alert in China’s four-level warning system. As a precaution, authorities suspended classes, halted ferry operations, canceled hundreds of flights and disrupted several high-speed rail services across the affected areas.Typhoon Bavi, which has maximum sustained winds of 144 kilometers per hour (89 mph) near its center, tracked north of Taiwan before making landfall in Zhejiang.
Weather officials said the storm will continue to move inland while steadily losing strength.Before arriving in China, the typhoon swept through the southern islands of Japan and Taiwan, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. In the Philippines, where BAVI intensified seasonal monsoon rains before moving north, at least 17 people were killed, most of them in landslides caused by torrential rains.Bavi is the second typhoon to hit China in just over a week, following Typhoon Maysak, which made landfall in the south of the country last weekend, keeping disaster response agencies on high alert along the east coast.
