At least 15 people lost their lives across southern and central China as Typhoon Maysak swept through the region, displacing tens of thousands of residents while forecasters warned of further dangerous conditions, according to The New York Times.
In Nanning, Guangxi's provincial capital, flooding linked to the storm killed four people and triggered evacuations of nearly 62,000 residents. The city's deputy mayor said two reservoir failures in the Hengzhou prefecture had caused "severe loss of life and property." Rainfall that began Saturday morning and continued through Monday evening totaled close to three days' worth of precipitation, pushing rivers and reservoirs beyond their limits, according to The Times.
In Hubei province, Monday's outbreak of tornadoes and powerful storms — with gusts recorded at up to 90 miles per hour — claimed 11 lives and left 331 others injured, according to the Guardian. Provincial authorities also reported that 4,800 homes sustained damage, and one person had not yet been accounted for.
State media video captured a surge of muddy water pouring through a gap in the wall of the Liulan reservoir and streaming toward nearby homes, while other footage revealed roads, agricultural land, and structures swallowed by floodwaters, according to The Times.
President Xi Jinping issued a directive Tuesday calling for rescuers to spare no effort in emergency response operations, state media reported, according to the Guardian. To support those efforts, the Ministry of Emergency Management mobilized upward of 1,000 personnel and dispatched vehicles, watercraft, and drones to the affected areas, according to The Associated Press.
Although the National Meteorological Center reported Tuesday that Maysak had lost some of its intensity, rainfall totals exceeding 10 inches were still anticipated by Wednesday across sections of Guangxi and the eastern and northern provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, and Liaoning, according to The Times.
Typhoon Bavi, a Category 5 storm that battered Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands earlier this week, is now tracking toward southeastern China, with forecasters expecting it to skirt Taiwan on Friday and come ashore somewhere along the Zhejiang-Fujian provincial boundary on Saturday, according to The Times. Chinese officials have linked the increasing frequency of extreme weather events to the effects of global warming.
Update, July 8, 2026: Authorities reported 11 people missing in the Guangxi region by Tuesday evening in addition to those killed. Evacuations across the region reached 130,000 people, up from the nearly 62,000 previously reported in Nanning. (per The Associated Press)