Typhoon Bavi batters eastern China

What's happened

Typhoon Bavi has struck Zhejiang province after skirting northern Taiwan and Japans southern islands, forcing the evacuation of more than two million people and cancelling hundreds of flights and trains. Bavi has weakened to a severe tropical storm but is carrying large volumes of moisture that will produce prolonged heavy rain and flood risk across eastern and northern China over coming days.

What's behind the headline?

What is happening now

• Bavi has made multiple landfalls in Zhejiang province and has weakened to a severe tropical storm while moving inland toward Anhui. Authorities have evacuated more than two million people, suspended transport and cancelled thousands of flights and train services.

Why this matters

• The storm still holds a huge moisture payload and will produce prolonged, heavy rainfall across densely populated eastern provinces — Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Anhui and parts of Shandong — which will increase river levels, overwhelm drainage and trigger landslides in hilly terrain.

Likely near-term consequences

• Flooding will force further evacuations and road closures and will disrupt supply chains tied to port and manufacturing hubs in Zhejiang and nearby provinces.
• Urban transport and air travel will remain suspended until rainfall eases; repair and clearing operations will stretch local emergency services.

What to expect next

• Bavi will continue moving northwest and weaken further, but rainfall bands will persist for days and shift northeast toward the Yellow Sea, extending flood risk into northern provinces.
• Authorities will shift from pre-emptive evacuation to recovery: emergency crews will focus on clearing debris, stabilising slopes and restoring transport arteries.

Bottom line

• The immediate wind threat has diminished, but heavy rain is the dominant hazard now. Preparedness and rapid recovery action will determine the human and economic toll, not the peak wind speeds.

How we got here

Bavi intensified over unusually warm western Pacific waters and moved northwest after hitting Guam and the Northern Marianas. China has recently faced multiple extreme-weather events: earlier July storms, including Maysak, have already caused deaths, reservoir breaches and large evacuations across southern and central provinces.

Our analysis

State and international outlets have reported consistent core facts but emphasised different details. Reuters, cited across several pieces and quoted by AFP in Al Jazeera and others, provided granular local reporting: Yueqing resident Li Liangxing told Reuters, "We could hear roof tiles and tree branches falling," and state broadcaster CCTV reported more than 1,300 trees felled in the city. Bloomberg emphasised the seasonal outlook, noting Chinas National Climate Centre has forecast up to six tropical cyclones this summer and warned storms "are expected to be strong overall." The New York Times Business and France 24 highlighted the wider damage path and earlier storm Maysak: the Times said Bavi had at one point spanned 620 miles and that previous storms caused reservoir breaches and dozens of deaths; France 24 and AP detailed evacuation figures and the declaration of orange and red alerts for rainstorms. Reports from Taiwan and Japan focused on injuries, power outages and flight cancellations before Bavi reached China. AP and Taiwans Central Weather Administration provided injury counts for Taiwan (over 100 injured) and documented large-scale cancellations. Local human detail appears strongest in Reuters, CCTV and state media excerpts (residents counting damage, emergency crews clearing streets), while international outlets such as Bloomberg and the New York Times placed the storm in a wider meteorological and economic context (size, warming seas, supply-chain risk).

Go deeper

• How long will heavy rains persist in eastern China after Bavi moves inland?
• What recovery resources have provincial governments mobilised for flood and landslide response?

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