Over 900,000 people flee in China as typhoon lashes Taiwan, Japan islands

KEELUNG, Taiwan: More than 900,000 people have fled their homes in China, the government said, as an approaching typhoon lashed northern Taiwan and Japan’s remote southwestern islands on Saturday, 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 is expected to make landfall early on Sunday around Wenzhou, a metropolis of nearly 10 million people in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where the city government said 887,801 people had been evacuated from their homes by late Friday.

“The proactive, all-out mobilisation, which is sparing no effort or cost, is undertaken entirely to guard against the (worst-case) scenario,” Wenzhou authorities 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, the government said, as water discharge flows from the capital’s Miyun Reservoir were ramped up to capture potential floodwaters.

Streets were largely deserted in northern Taiwan, where most businesses were shut for a second day as wind and rain buffetted 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.

“Everyone is afraid of the severe weather and staying indoors, but I only came out because I have orders,” a breakfast shop owner surnamed Tsai told AFP in Taiwan’s port city of Keelung.

“Some people are on duty and wouldn’t have anything to eat, so I still need to deliver food to them,” the 50-year-old said.

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.

Its maximum sustained wind speeds slowed to 137 kilometres (85 miles) per hour, with gusts of around 173 kmh, on Saturday, Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.

The CWA warned of “extremely torrential rain” across northern Taiwan and “dangerous waves” of up to 10 metres (33 feet) along the coast as Bavi skirted the island’s north.

Death toll rises

In the Philippines, the death toll from landslides and other incidents triggered by heavy rains driven by Bavi rose to 18, most on the southern island of Mindanao.

Nearly 11,000 people across the archipelago fled their homes and dozens of ports remain closed, with 313 vessels taking shelter.

More than 18,000 households and facilities across Okinawa lost power as the typhoon pounded Japan’s remote southwestern islands, with the Miyako region hardest hit.

Japanese airlines cancelled dozens of flights, affecting more than 26,000 passengers.

Oceans experienced their hottest June on record and could set fresh highs in the months ahead, the European Union’s Copernicus Marine Service said last week.

Warmer oceans help tropical storms to intensify and add more moisture, which can fall as heavy rain.

Adding to the mix is the return this year of El Nino, a natural climate phenomenon that warms Pacific Ocean surface temperatures and typically occurs every two to seven years.