Nearly two million people were ordered out of their homes across eastern China as Typhoon Bavi came ashore in Zhejiang Province late Saturday, unleashing flooding, landslides, and sweeping disruptions in what authorities described as the country's most powerful typhoon of the year.
According to The New York Times, Bavi first came ashore near Taizhou at approximately 11:20 p.m. Saturday, packing winds close to 90 miles per hour, before a second landfall near Wenzhou around midnight. Within Zhejiang, 1.7 million residents were evacuated, with Fujian Province clearing an additional 180,000 people from vulnerable coastal zones.
In southeastern Zhejiang, the Nanxi River burst its banks under relentless rainfall, inundating surrounding villages and agricultural land. More than 1,200 Sunday flights were grounded across eastern China, and a string of cities in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hubei shut down workplaces, schools, and transit networks in response to the storm, according to The Times.
Chinese authorities allocated $5.9 million in central disaster relief funds to support emergency response efforts in Zhejiang and Fujian, according to the Los Angeles Times. The national weather center issued an orange typhoon alert — the second-highest level — as well as the first red rainstorm warning of the year.
According to The Associated Press, at least 17 people died in the Philippines before Bavi reached China, with deadly slides of earth and debris — set in motion by monsoon rains that the typhoon had intensified — hitting communities in Sarangani and Lanao del Sur provinces. Taiwan bore heavy rainfall as the storm tracked north of the island, with Miaoli County recording 30 inches of precipitation and local officials reporting 135 injuries. Okinawa Prefecture also felt Bavi's force, with more than 200 flights canceled across Japan's southern islands.
According to The New York Times, Bavi's diameter had reached roughly 620 miles at its peak — comparable to the breadth of France — before the system lost strength as it pushed into Anhui Province, dropping to severe tropical storm status with maximum winds of 62 mph. Further north, authorities in Beijing, Hebei, and Liaoning drew down reservoir capacity and shuttered outdoor public spaces to reduce flood risk ahead of the storm, according to Reuters.
Bavi's arrival came roughly ten days after Typhoon Maysak had swept ashore in southern China on July 3, making it the country's second typhoon landfall in just over a week, according to the Los Angeles Times.