Taiwan: Nearly two million people have fled their homes in China 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.
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Typhoon Bavi is expected to make landfall early on Sunday in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where more than 1.7 million people have been evacuated from their homes, state media reported.
Classes, work, transport and outdoor activities have been suspended, and more than 400 flights and dozens of train services cancelled in the province.
“The proactive, all-out mobilisation, which is sparing no effort or cost, is undertaken entirely to guard against the (worst-case) scenario,” the government in Wenzhou, a metropolis of nearly 10 million people in Zhejiang, 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 in Beijing, the government said, as water discharge flows from the capital’s Miyun Reservoir were ramped up to capture potential floodwaters.
More than 130,000 people have fled their homes in Fujian and around 34,000 people from Shanghai’s coastal areas and high-risk areas, state media reported.
Streets were largely deserted in northern Taiwan, where most businesses were shut for a second day as wind and rain buffeted 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 kph on Saturday, Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.
