Typhoon Bavi Drives Nearly Two Million People From China’s Eastern Coast

China has once again found itself doing the obvious thing late: emptying cities before a storm does it for them. Typhoon Bavi made landfall on the eastern coast on Saturday evening, first near Taizhou and later around midnight near Wenzhou, after authorities moved almost two million people out of harm’s way in Zhejiang province.

The storm is no small weather system, even by the standards of a season that seems determined to test patience. At its widest point, Bavi stretches about 1,000 kilometres, roughly the width of France, and although it has weakened to a Category 1 typhoon, the danger has not gone with the wind. The problem now is rain: officials warned of exceptionally heavy downpours in eastern Zhejiang and northeastern Fujian, and said the evacuations were carried out entirely to guard against the worst-case scenario.

That caution has come at a cost, but so would the alternative. More than 1.7 million people were evacuated in Zhejiang, with thousands more moved in neighbouring provinces. Schools have been suspended, work has been halted and outdoor activities cancelled. Around 400 flights and dozens of train services have been scrapped, while Wenzhou, a city of about 10 million people, sits close to the storm’s track. Supermarket shelves have reportedly been stripped bare as residents stock up, which is what passes for rational behaviour when the sky starts acting like a machine gun.

Bavi reached China after a long and messy journey across the Pacific. It began as a super typhoon, battering Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands with winds of up to 290 kilometres per hour. It then weakened to 144 kilometres per hour as it moved onward, hitting Japan’s Sakishima islands, where at least five people were injured and thousands lost power. Taiwan escaped a direct hit, but heavy rain forced thousands from their homes and raised the risk of landslides; no deaths were reported there.

The Philippines paid the heaviest price earlier in the storm’s path. Landslides triggered by Bavi killed at least 17 people, a reminder that even a system downgraded on paper can still be lethal in practice. Taiwan had warned that rainfall could reach up to one metre, which helps explain the alarm across the region.

China’s problem, however, is not just Bavi. Parts of the south are still dealing with the damage from Typhoon Maysak earlier in the week, which left at least 39 people dead, killed large numbers of livestock and caused severe agricultural losses. It also spawned two rare tornadoes in Hubei. For officials in Zhejiang, then, the evacuation is not an abstract exercise in emergency planning. It is the price of living in a region where the weather has started to arrive with industrial efficiency, and where the bill, as usual, will come due later.

Written by Martina Kirchner martina.kirchner@alpineweekly.com