Typhoon Bavi Nears China; 17,000 Evacuated in Zhejiang
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- Typhoon Bavi is tracking toward China's east coast with maximum sustained winds of 155 kph, forecast to make landfall Saturday night (July 11) near the Fujian-Zhejiang border south of Shanghai.
- Taipei closed schools on Friday, tied up fishing boats, and cancelled many flights to Japan and Hong Kong as the storm was expected to pass north of Taiwan from Friday night into Saturday.
- Zhejiang province evacuated more than 17,000 people and placed 170,000 rescue workers on standby, according to Xinhua News Agency.
- Fujian province suspended ferry routes and ordered fishing boats to return to port due to strong winds and rough seas.
- Bavi weakened from supertyphoon strength earlier in the week after striking Saipan and other U.S. Pacific territories with violent winds.
- The storm comes as China reels from Tropical Storm Maysak flooding in Guangxi that killed 39 with record rainfall, and severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in Hubei that killed 11 on July 6 — 50 storm-related deaths this week before Bavi arrives.
Why it matters: China is absorbing a punishing cascade of extreme weather, with 50 confirmed storm deaths this week from separate disasters in Guangxi and Hubei alone, and authorities in Zhejiang have already evacuated 17,000+ people and placed 170,000 rescue workers on standby for Bavi's landfall on a heavily populated stretch of coast between Fujian and Shanghai.
