BEIJING (AP) — China is preparing for yet another powerful storm as Typhoon Bavi approaches the country’s eastern coast, following a brutal week of weather disasters that have left 50 people dead across two separate regions of the country.
Typhoon Bavi is packing maximum sustained winds of 162 kilometers — roughly 101 miles — per hour. Before reaching mainland China, the storm was expected to pass north of Taiwan, dumping heavy rainfall on the island of 23 million residents from Friday evening through Saturday.
Authorities in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city, shut down schools on Friday, and fishing vessels in northern Taiwan’s ports were secured tightly together as a precaution. Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that numerous flights to Japan, Hong Kong, and other destinations were called off through Saturday, though some remained on schedule.
The typhoon’s current path to the northwest is projected to carry it over several remote Japanese islands before swinging past Taiwan’s northern edge on Saturday. Forecasters expect it to come ashore Saturday night in an area south of Shanghai, near where Fujian and Zhejiang provinces meet.
In preparation for the storm’s arrival, more than 17,000 residents have been evacuated in Zhejiang province, and 170,000 emergency workers have been placed on standby, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. Fujian province has halted certain ferry services due to dangerous wind and sea conditions and ordered fishing boats back to harbor.
Bavi had previously reached supertyphoon intensity earlier in the week, bringing destructive winds to Saipan and other U.S. territories in the Pacific Ocean, before losing some of its strength.
Meanwhile, in southern China, officials confirmed Thursday that Tropical Storm Maysak was responsible for 39 deaths. The storm drenched the Guangxi region with record-breaking rainfall over several days, causing widespread flooding.
The torrential rains overwhelmed reservoirs and triggered the partial collapse of a dam in Hengzhou, sending a surge of fast-moving, muddy water across a large area. Many residents were trapped on the second floors and higher of their homes for days, often without electricity, until rescue teams were able to reach them.
Elsewhere in China, 11 people lost their lives in Hubei province in central China when powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes struck on Monday night.
In a separate and unrelated incident, a landslide in Gansu province in western China killed 21 forestry workers on Tuesday — a tragedy with no connection to the recent storms.
