Typhoon Bavi Weakens To Tropical Storm After Battering China, Over 2.2 Million Evacuated

Typhoon Bavi slammed into eastern China late Saturday, arriving just ten days after Typhoon Maysak left a trail of destruction across the country's south, killing at least 39 people and forcing dozens of rivers to overflow. Bavi first made landfall around 11:20 pm in the coastal city of Yuhuan , before bouncing back offshore and striking a second time roughly twenty minutes later in Yueqing , a district of Wenzhou, packing winds of 144 kilometres per hour.

By early Sunday, the storm had weakened to a severe tropical storm, according to China's National Meteorological Center , with its eye tracked near the commercial hub of Yiwu as it continued moving northwest. Authorities warned of force eleven winds near 108 kph, along with the risk of flash floods, overflowing rivers, and inundated farmland across Zhejiang's coastal regions. There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties from the latest landfall, officials said.

More than 2.2 million people have now been evacuated across Zhejiang, a sharp jump from the 1.7 million reported a day earlier. Fujian province relocated over 130,000 residents, Shanghai moved roughly 34,000 people from high risk coastal areas, and torrential rain further north prompted the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents in Beijing , where discharge flows from the Miyun Reservoir were ramped up to capture potential floodwaters.

Ahead of landfall, Chinese authorities allocated 40 million yuan, around 5.9 million dollars, in central disaster relief funds to support emergency operations in Zhejiang and Fujian. Classes, transport, and outdoor activities were suspended, with more than 400 flights and dozens of train services cancelled across the affected provinces.

Bavi had earlier lashed northern Taiwan and Japan's southwestern islands without making direct landfall on either, toppling trees and leaving tens of thousands without power. In the Philippines, the death toll from landslides and flooding intensified by Bavi's outer rain bands has climbed to 18, most on the southern island of Mindanao, where nearly 11,000 people fled their homes.

Forecasters expect Bavi to continue weakening as it pushes further inland toward the Yellow Sea over the coming days, though officials cautioned the storm's enormous rain bands still pose a serious flooding threat to communities still recovering from Maysak.