BEIJING: Typhoon Bavi made landfall late on Saturday (Jul 11) in eastern China, packing strong winds as it roared ashore after authorities evacuated nearly two million people, state media said.
There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.
Before reaching China, the storm lashed northern Taiwan and Japan’s remote southwestern islands, toppling trees and leaving tens of thousands without power.
Extreme weather has already wreaked havoc on southern and central China this week, with storms leaving at least 39 dead and causing dozens of rivers to overflow and a reservoir dam to burst.
Typhoon Bavi first made landfall at around 11.20pm Saturday in Zhejiang province, the state Xinhua news agency said, quoting the provincial meteorological observatory.
The typhoon – which first came ashore in Yuhuan city – packed winds of up to 144 kmh, the agency said.
The storm bounced back away from land and hit a second time in Yueqing City about 20 minutes later, Xinhua added.
Zhejiang provincial officials forecast torrential rain in coastal regions and the possibility of flash floods, transportation disruptions, rivers overflowing their banks and farmland being inundated, Xinhua said.
Bavi was expected to keep moving to the northwest while weakening, Xinhua said, without mentioning if there was damage or casualties.
As of Saturday morning, authorities had evacuated 1.72 million people to safe places, Xinhua said.
Ahead of the storm’s arrival, classes, work, transport and outdoor activities were suspended, and more than 400 flights and dozens of train services were cancelled in the province.
“The proactive, all-out mobilisation, which is sparing no effort or cost, is undertaken entirely to guard against the (worst-case) scenario,” the government in Wenzhou, a metropolis of nearly 10 million people in Zhejiang, said in a statement.
Residents used wood to reinforce metal shutters protecting shops and taped windows, with Bavi forecast to bring “exceptionally heavy rains” to eastern Zhejiang and northeastern Fujian province, CCTV footage showed.
Torrential rain further north prompted the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from their homes in Beijing, the government said, as water discharge flows from the capital’s Miyun Reservoir were ramped up to capture potential floodwaters.
More than 130,000 people have fled their homes in Fujian and around 34,000 people from Shanghai’s coastal areas and high-risk areas, state media reported.
Streets were largely deserted in northern Taiwan, where most businesses were shut for a second day as wind and rain buffeted the region.
More than 14,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, hundreds of flights cancelled and more than 170,000 households across the island hit with power outages because of the storm.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) warned of “extremely torrential rain” across northern Taiwan and “dangerous waves” of up to 10 metres along the coast as Bavi skirted the island’s north.
Bavi was downgraded to a typhoon as it moved across the Pacific Ocean after slamming into Guam and the Northern Marianas on Monday as a super typhoon.
Read the full article here
