Emergency shelters are stocking up on supplies, weather forecasters are gearing up for rolling alerts and rescue teams are on 24-hour call, with Super Typhoon Bavi expected to land on China’s eastern coast between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, the government of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said all departments should be “highly alert” and prepared for the worst.
It called for officials to review past cases, including Typhoon Lekima, which killed 66 people in the east of the country and caused heavy flooding in 2019.
There should be more precise forecasts and analyses over the typhoon’s impact, evacuation plans drafted in advance and emergency supplies prepared, it said.
A reservoir in the area has started discharging floodwaters in preparation for the severe rainfall expected in the next few days.
Since reaching super typhoon status on Saturday, Bavi has continued to move west and brought catastrophic winds to western Pacific islands this week. It is nearing Taiwan, where its worst effects are predicted to be felt on Friday and Saturday.
According to meteorological forecasts, after grazing the northern part of Taiwan, Bavi is likely to make landfall along the coastal area near the Zhejiang-Fujian border on Saturday, affecting the eastern provinces and Shanghai, before moving gradually inland and northward.
Nearshore waves measuring 2 to 8.5 metres were expected along the coasts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, Cai Jingze, an engineer from the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre, told Cover News.
The centre warned that Bavi was the strongest and most wide-ranging typhoon in this year’s flood season. All coastal tourist attractions should be closed, boats should be docked, and other infrastructure should be maintained and checked, it said.
Preparations are under way in multiple provinces. Across Zhejiang, firefighters launched search and rescue drills this week.
As of Wednesday morning, Zhejiang had halted 52 passenger ferry routes, evacuated more than 3,000 people from coastal islands, and deployed 72 patrol boats, eight tugboats and one rescue jet on standby for emergencies.
Also on Wednesday, Jiangsu province said junior high schools, primary schools, kindergartens and extracurricular activities should be halted for the next two days. It also called for checks on construction sites, billboards, trees and underground parking spaces to prevent flooding and structural failure.
Four provincial teams were sent to coastal cities in Jiangsu to help with preparations, while 656 lots of mobile pump and drainage equipment were deployed at high-risk sites, with 4,842 people patrolling and monitoring. Local authorities sent text messages to residents, cautioning them to stay indoors.
Shanghai’s weather forecaster said the region could expect several days of extreme heat of up to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), with heavy rain from the typhoon expected on Friday.
Forecaster Xiang Chunyi told state broadcaster CCTV that conditions had favoured Bavi’s progression to a super typhoon, with the sea surface temperature along its track exceptionally high and steady moisture feeding into the storm’s centre.
The path of the typhoon was uncertain at the moment, with a possibility of landing in eastern China and tracking north, she said.
China is facing battles against extreme weather and geological disasters on many fronts. In the northwest, forestry workers were engulfed by a landslide, while in the south, rescue parties are searching for those trapped in unprecedented floods.
The government of Longnan, Gansu province, said on Wednesday morning that all 33 involved in the landslide incident were rescued.
In all, 21 people had died and seven were injured throughout Gansu.
The area has seen several days of rain. On Monday night, the local weather forecasters issued an orange alert, the second highest in a four-tiered system, and a warning to expect 6cm (2in) of rain.
In central and southern China, residents are still coping with the remnants of Typhoon Maysak.
A tornado tore through Huanggang in Hubei province, damaging rooftops, roads and trees.
The rare twister even broke a window and sucked a man out of his 12th-floor flat, according to the Xiaoxiang Morning Post. The man landed in a bush and was being treated at a local hospital, it said.
In Hengzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, some villagers were bitten by cobras after a snake farm collapsed in the floods. Volunteers tracked them down on social media and provided serum while others went to local hospitals.
Local media reported that a woman who was bitten by a reptile had died, while the city immediately expanded serum storage in local hospitals and asked for medical staff training on how to deal with snakebites.
Warnings were also sent to villagers to stay indoors at night and stay away from field weeds and ditches.
Earlier this week, a reservoir suffered a breach in the area, leading to flooding in multiple villages, where people were trapped on rooftops and farms collapsed.
Besides the snake farm, 16,000 pigs from another farm were also washed away, a local entrepreneur told China Newsweek. He said he had prepared for flooding when he heard of Typhoon Maysak but never expected the dam to break.
When the flood engulfed factory houses, the entrepreneur told staff to move to higher ground. The water had destroyed almost all the factories with an estimated loss of 50 million yuan (US$7.36 million), but all the workers were safe, he said.
Hengzhou – dubbed the world capital of jasmine flowers – handles more than 80 per cent of China’s jasmine tea production, public records show. It also provides flowers for the Luckin Coffee brand.
The damage from the flood to its local industry was “incalculable”, staff at a local tourism board told Southern Weekend.
Guangxi is still facing persistent rainfall and a high risk of landslides and dams breaking, the government said on Tuesday night. In multiple cities, roads, electricity and communications still have not recovered and some residents face water shortages.
By noon on Wednesday, the flooding had affected Zhaoqing in Guangdong province, downstream from Guangxi. Water is expected to rise to 20.5 metres by Thursday morning at Fengkai county, where 348 people have already been evacuated, CCTV said. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
