Typhoon Bavi Slams into China, Millions Evacuated and Flights Cancelled

Typhoon Bavi has begun making landfall in eastern China, bringing strong winds and forcing millions of people to evacuate to safety. The official Xinhua news agency reported that Typhoon Bavi landed around 11.20 pm on Saturday night in Zhejiang Province. Citing the meteorological observatory, the typhoon carried wind speeds of up to 144 kilometres per hour. Typhoon Bavi is expected to continue moving northwest while weakening. Before reaching China, the storm had already battered northern Taiwan and remote islands in southwestern Japan, toppling trees and causing tens of thousands of homes to lose power. Extreme weather has already caused severe damage in southern and central China this week, killing at least 39 people, causing dozens of rivers to overflow, and breaching a reservoir dam. By Saturday morning, authorities had evacuated 1.72 million people to safety. School, office, transport, and outdoor activities were suspended, and more than 400 flights and dozens of train services in the province were cancelled. ‘This proactive and comprehensive mobilisation was carried out without sparing any effort or expense, fully to anticipate the worst-case scenario,’ the Wenzhou city government said in a statement. CCTV footage showed residents using wooden beams to reinforce their shop shutters and taping up windows. Bavi is expected to bring exceptionally heavy rain to eastern Zhejiang and northeastern Fujian provinces. Further north, heavy rain triggered the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from their homes in Beijing, with authorities stating that the discharge rate from the capital’s Miyun Reservoir had been increased to accommodate potential flooding. State media also reported that more than 130,000 people had fled their homes in Fujian, and around 34,000 people were evacuated from coastal and high-risk areas in Shanghai.