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15-07-2026
WENZHOU, CHINA: Emergency crews on China’s east coast used excavators and chainsaws on Sunday to clear streets littered with fallen trees hours after Typhoon Bavi, the most powerful storm to hit the country this year, swept through the region.
Triggering a landslide and waterlogging some areas, Bavi had weakened by morning to a tropical storm as it pushed inland, but forecasters warned that the France-sized storm system could unleash prolonged and widespread rainfall across eastern and northern China.
Nearly 2 million people were evacuated ahead of Bavi’s arrival, mostly in Zhejiang province, an economic and technology powerhouse for the world’s second-biggest economy.
Bavi struck Zhejiang’s coastal city of Yuhuan around 11:20 p.m. (1520 GMT) on Saturday before making a second landfall in Yueqing, in the major city of Wenzhou, around midnight.
In Yueqing, more than 1,300 trees fell across the city, over 700 of them uprooted entirely, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The deepest flooding reached roughly half the height of a vehicle tire.
In the cities mountainous north, footage aired by CCTV showed a landslide that sent large boulders tumbling onto a mountain road, while swollen river waters submerged nearby trees.
As it approached China, Bavi passed Taiwan to the north on Saturday, bringing strong wind and driving rain across much of the island. The storm dumped almost 80 cm (31 inches) of rain in one area in the northern county of Miaoli.
Taiwan’s fire department said on Sunday that 134 people had been injured, mainly falling off motorbikes, slipping or being struck by objects. It reported no deaths. The transport ministry said 137 international flights had been cancelled on Sunday, along with 62 domestic flights.
Bavi had maximum sustained winds of about 144 km per hour (90 mph), equivalent to Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, when it made landfall at around 11:20 p.m. local time (1520 GMT), according to the National Meteorological Center.
State media said more than 1.7 million people had been evacuated across Zhejiang province, where Taizhou is located, along with more than 100,000 each from neighboring Fujian province and Beijing, and some 34,000 from Shanghai.
“I’m a little worried, but I think it’ll be OK. We’ve been through typhoons before. We’ll get through it,” said Wenzhou resident Huang Xinghuan, 50, who was out buying groceries at a traditional wet market before it closed ahead of the typhoon.
Huang said his family had stocked about two to three days’ worth of water. “I think supplies are well guaranteed now. There’s no need to panic or stockpile a lot of food or other supplies,” he added.
While Japan and Taiwan have not so far reported any deaths from the typhoon, 17 people died in the Philippines due to heavy rains brought by an enhanced southwest monsoon, worsened by Bavi’s impact.
Taiwan’s fire department said 113 people had been injured, mostly from falls from motorcycles or bicycles, as well as people falling over or being struck by objects.
In Taiwan, the government evacuated more than 14,000 people from mainly mountainous areas as the island shut down for the approach of Bavi to the north.
While Bavi did not make landfall in Taiwan, the government took precautions to prevent loss of life, given forecasts for almost 1 metre (3 feet) of rain in some areas.
Most of those evacuated were in areas in the north and east, with 920 international flights cancelled, effectively closing Taiwan’s main international airport at Taoyuan, outside the capital Taipei, as well as all 282 domestic flights. (Int’l News Desk)
