China evacuates 1.8M people as Typhoon Bavi nears landfall
China evacuated more than 1.8 million people on Saturday as Typhoon Bavi churned toward the major eastern city of Wenzhou after pummelling Japan’s southern Sakishima island chain with heavy rain and violent winds and brushing past northern Taiwan.
Even as Bavi continues to slow and weaken on its northwesterly path over cooler seas, the typhoon is still a potent risk due to the sheer volume of moisture it holds within its rain bands, about the size of France from end to end.
Bavi had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, equivalent to Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and was about 124 miles southeast of Wenling in the eastern province of Zhejiang as of 8:08 a.m., according to the National Meteorological Center.
Bavi is forecast to make landfall around Wenzhou, home to some 10 million people, early on Sunday.
State media said more than 1.7 million people had been evacuated across Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located, and more than 100,000 in neighboring Fujian province.
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