Typhoon Bavi made landfall in Zhejiang at 11:20pm on Saturday, after Chinese authorities evacuated more than 1.7 million people. In China and Taiwan, the storm had already forced closures and transport cuts before it reached land.
China’s national weather agency issued a second-highest orange typhoon alert on a four-level rating. Xinhua said the landfall time came from the Zhejiang provincial meteorological observatory. Hundreds of flights were cancelled in China, rail travel services were reduced, and many schools and ferry services were suspended.
Wenzhou groceries before the closure
In Wenzhou, Huang Xinghuan was buying groceries at a traditional wet market before it closed in advance of the typhoon. He said, “I’m a little worried, but I think it’ll be OK,” and said his family had stocked about two or three days’ water. “We’ve been through typhoons before. We’ll get through it,” he said.
Bavi had maximum sustained winds of 144kph near its centre and was expected to move northwestward inland and gradually weaken. Even after landfall, the storm was still considered dangerous because it carried large volumes of moisture in its rain bands.
Taiwan and Japan disruptions
Before reaching Zhejiang, Bavi brought strong winds and rain to Japan’s southern islands and Taiwan. In Taiwan, at least 36 people were injured, 14,210 people were evacuated across the island by Saturday morning, and schools, offices and most restaurants were closed. More than 200 flights were cancelled across Japan, while authorities in Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture warned of high waves, strong winds and storm surges, and strong winds and rain hit the southern Sakishima island chain since Friday.
The storm was the second typhoon in just more than a week to hit China, after Maysak made landfall in southern China last weekend. In Ningde, Fujian, authorities evacuated more than 3,700 people from high-risk onshore areas by Friday evening and placed more than 17,000 emergency rescue workers on standby.
How much damage Bavi caused after landfall in Zhejiang had not been stated, but the move inland means the main focus now shifts to flood-prone areas along its path rather than the coast. That is the next point readers in Zhejiang, Wenzhou, Taiwan and Japan need to watch: whether closed transport links, school suspensions and ferry cancellations can reopen only after the storm’s moisture weakens further.
