A powerful typhoon has made landfall in China, the second to hit the country in a week, with nearly two million people evacuated from areas in the path of the storm.
Typhoon Bavi, which spans 1,000km (620 miles) at its widest point – roughly the width of France – first came ashore in the coastal city of Taizhou on Saturday evening before making a second landfall in Wenzhou around midnight (17:00 GMT).
After pummelling a chain of remote Japanese islands, it brought heavy rainfall to Taiwan as it brushed past its northern tip. Earlier landslides triggered by the storm killed at least 17 people in the Philippines.
Though it has weakened to a severe tropical storm, it still presents a risk because of the huge volume of moisture within its rain bands. The storm is expected to gradually diminish in its intensity as it moves northwest. On Sunday morning, the centre of the typhoon reached Hangzhou City in Zhejiang province, Chinese state media reported.
Forecasters said the typhoon would move to eastern Anhui today (Monday), and to the northern Yellow Sea from the Shandong Peninsula on Tuesday. More than 1.7 million people were evacuated in Zhejiang and thousands more in neighbouring provinces, state media said.
Schools, work and outdoor activities have been suspended in Zhejiang, while 400 flights and dozens of train services have been cancelled. The city of Wenzhou, home to around 10 million people, is close to the path of the storm, with authorities evacuating hundreds of thousands of residents.
“We could hear roof tiles and tree branches falling,” Li Liangxing, a resident of the city told Reuters, adding “of course we were scared.” Beijing had ordered the evacuation of 100,000 people to “avoid risk”, officials said.
Bavi began as a super typhoon, battering Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands last Monday with wind speeds of 290km/h (180mph). As it made its way through the Pacific, weakening to 144 km/h winds, it struck the Sakishima islands, part of Japan’s Ryukyu island chain between the country’s main islands and Taiwan.
At least five people were injured and thousands were without power. Taiwan itself did not receive a direct hit but thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and there was a danger of landslides after heavy rain. Neither country has reported any deaths.
According to Reuters, Japanese islands like Ishigaki have borne the brunt of Typhoon Bavi as it powers through the Pacific Taiwanese authorities had warned that Bavi could bring up to 1m (39 inches) of rainfall.
Dozens of flights have been cancelled while schools have suspended classes across the region. Supermarket shelves have been wiped clean as residents stock up on supplies. Parts of southern China are still reeling from the devastation brought by Typhoon Maysak earlier this week.
Maysak left at least 39 people dead and killed large numbers of livestock, resulting in massive agriculture loss. It also spurred two rare tornadoes in the central Hubei province.
