Typhoon Bavi weakened to a severe tropical storm early Sunday after making landfall in China’s eastern Zhejiang province the night before, capping a nine-day track across the western Pacific that has killed at least 17 people in the Philippines and forced the evacuation of more than 1.7 million people in China alone.
The storm struck the coastal city of Yuhuan at around 11:20 p.m. local time Saturday with sustained winds of 144 kilometers per hour, according to the Zhejiang Provincial Meteorological Observatory, before pushing inland and making a second landfall near midnight in Yueqing, part of the city of Wenzhou. China’s National Meteorological Center said Sunday morning that Bavi had weakened below typhoon strength but warned its rain bands could still dump hundreds of millimeters of rain across eastern and northern China in the coming days.
Chinese authorities had maintained an Orange Typhoon Warning, the second-highest on the country’s four-tier scale, and issued the nation’s first Red Rainstorm Warning of the year ahead of landfall. The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised its emergency response level for Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, and the government allocated 40 million yuan, or roughly $5.9 million, in disaster relief funds to the two provinces.
Zhejiang evacuated more than 1.7 million people ahead of the storm, while Shanghai relocated about 34,000 residents from high-risk coastal areas. Neighboring Fujian province moved more than 100,000 people and placed over 17,000 emergency workers on standby.
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In Yueqing, more than 1,300 trees fell, with over 700 uprooted entirely, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Floodwaters reached roughly half the height of a vehicle tire in low-lying streets, and footage aired by CCTV showed a landslide sending boulders onto a mountain road in the city’s north. Emergency crews used excavators and chainsaws Sunday to clear debris-strewn streets.
Yueqing resident Li Liangxing described the winds as extremely strong, telling Reuters, “We could hear roof tiles and tree branches falling.” He said he had never seen the water in a canal beside his home so high; a walkway that once ran alongside it was submerged.
In the fishing town of Kanmen, 72-year-old shop owner Lin Yongjin said rain poured into his parcel shop after its entrance canopy collapsed, forcing him and his family to bail water through the night. Having weathered many typhoons before, he called this one especially powerful. “It made landfall right here in Kanmen,” he said. “We were right in its path.”
Bavi’s toll extends across a broad stretch of the western Pacific. The storm caused what officials in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands described as catastrophic damage after striking Rota as a super typhoon a week earlier, then enhanced monsoon rains over the southern Philippines, where landslides and flooding have killed at least 17 people and affected nearly 515,000 others, according to the country’s disaster management council. Roughly 14,000 Philippine families have been displaced, with about 2,900 still in evacuation centers.
The storm later passed north of Taiwan, where the island’s fire department reported 134 injuries, mostly from falls and motorbike accidents, and no deaths; more than 130 international and 60 domestic flights were canceled Sunday. It also brushed Japan’s southern Okinawa islands with high waves and strong winds before curving toward the Chinese mainland.
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Bavi is the second typhoon to strike China in just over a week, following Typhoon Maysak’s landfall in the country’s south on July 3. Forecasters expect Bavi’s remnants to swing northeast into Anhui province by Tuesday before pushing into the northern Yellow Sea and transitioning into an extratropical cyclone.
“Even if the storm weakens after landfall, its large circulation can continue to generate destructive weather hundreds of kilometers inland,” said Benjamin Horton, dean of the School of Energy and Environment at the City University of Hong Kong. Scientists tracking this year’s typhoon season have pointed to an active El Nino pattern in the equatorial Pacific as a factor that can shift typhoon tracks westward toward China’s coast and speed the kind of rapid intensification Bavi displayed earlier in its life span. China’s transport disruptions extended well beyond Zhejiang: Hangzhou suspended service at two major rail stations and canceled 327 flights at its international airport, while Shanghai canceled 1,620 train trips and 684 flights, according to state-backed outlet The Paper.