Typhoon Bavi Batters China After Leaving Trail of Destruction

Typhoon Bavi, designated Super Typhoon Inday in the Philippines, struck China's Zhejiang province on July 11, 2026. The storm made consecutive landfalls in the coastal cities of Yuhuan and Yueqing, bringing sustained heavy rainfall and violent wind gusts reaching 101 kilometers per hour. Authorities mobilized massive emergency responses, evacuating over 2.8 million residents, including 2.2 million in Zhejiang, to mitigate the impact of the tropical cyclone. Although the storm weakened into a tropical system inland, it caused significant infrastructure damage, including the downing of over 1,300 trees in Yueqing and widespread flooding that halted major transport networks across the eastern region.

Before impacting China, the typhoon reached peak intensity with sustained winds of 285 km/h near the Northern Mariana Islands. The storm's path across the Pacific left a devastating wake in the Philippines, where it triggered landslides that resulted in 18 confirmed fatalities and left 14 people missing. Taiwan also suffered extensive weather-related losses, reporting 113 injuries and power outages impacting 234,481 households as record-breaking rainfall of nearly 80 centimeters submerged parts of Miaoli county. These disruptions forced the cancellation of numerous international and domestic flights throughout the region as the storm intensified earlier in July.

Major transportation hubs in Hangzhou and Shanghai remain severely affected, with hundreds of flights and thousands of train trips cancelled to ensure public safety. While no official casualty reports have emerged from the Chinese mainland, the scale of the evacuations underscores the severity of the threat. The disruption to air and rail travel continues to ripple through regional logistics, impacting supply chains that extend to international markets. Observers continue to monitor the cyclone's dissipation as weather agencies shift focus toward damage assessment and recovery operations in the affected coastal territories.