One of the year’s strongest typhoons has deadly impact in ‘China’s Hawaii’ before hitting Vietnam

By Chris Lau, Robert Shackelford, Jerome Taylor and Nectar Gan, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — One of this year’s most powerful storms made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, after killing at least four people and injuring at least 95 others in southern China, according to state media.

Having recorded maximum sustained wind speeds of 230 kilometers per hour (140 miles per hour), Typhoon Yagi was the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane – the world’s second most powerful tropical cyclone of 2024 so far, only eclipsed by the Atlantic hurricane Beryl which was a Category 5.

It was the strongest typhoon to make landfall in 10 years in the Chinese holiday island of Hainan, where all the deaths and injuries reported by state broadcaster CCTV have been located.

Local authorities said that “the damage and impact of this typhoon were beyond imagination, causing huge losses to people’s lives and property,” according to CCTV.

As of 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, the disaster had affected a total of 1.227 million people in the Chinese provinces of Hainan, Guangdong, and Guangxi to varying degrees, CCTV reported

Yagi slightly weakened after hitting China, but re-intensified to once again be a Category 4 hurricane.

It made further landfall in neighboring Vietnam on Saturday afternoon, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the capital Hanoi, having also hit the southwestern end of China’s Guangdong province.

The storm was expected to bring strong winds and significant storm surges to northern Vietnam over the next several hours, with heavy rains continuing through the weekend.

More than a million people were evacuated to safer territory in Hainan and Guangdong while early reports from Chinese state media on Saturday morning said many trees were down and there was some local flooding, as well as power outages.

Scientists have found that hotter oceans caused by the human-caused climate crisis are leading storms to intensify more rapidly. Just two days ago, Yagi was a tropical storm with top winds of 90 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour), but it quickly gathered strength over the warm waters of the South China Sea. As it thundered towards Hainan, Yagi had been classified as a super typhoon but it lost some strength before making landfall and was downgraded.

Known as Enteng in the Philippines, Yagi had brought heavy rainfall across the country earlier in the week. At least 13 people were killed, Reuters reported. In some parts of Luzon, rainfall totaling 400 millimeters (15.8 inches) was reported, and rain from the storms outer bands has continued to drench parts of the Philippines in recent days.

When it hit Haikou, in northern Hainan, gusts as strong as 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) were recorded.

The approaching typhoon had already brought cities across Hainan (population 10 million) to a standstill, with schools, businesses, restaurants and beaches closed and public transport, including trains and flights, halted. Some cities in the neighboring provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi adopted similar measures.

On Chinese social media, Hainan residents shared footage of an intense storm churning across the island on Thursday evening, with streaks of lightning flashing across a purple night sky.

The holiday island received rainfall of up to 12 inches.

Hainan is often dubbed “China’s Hawaii,” boasting sandy beaches, good surf, five-star resorts and duty-free luxury shopping. It is not currently peak travel season, however, and the island generally has a good track record of weathering powerful storms.

Yagi is the strongest typhoon to make landfall on the island since Rammasun in 2014. That super typhoon — defined as having wind speed of above 240 kilometers per hour or 150 miles per hour — killed at least 62 people across Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan provinces, causing more than 38 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) in direct economic losses.

This year, much of southern China has been battered by weeks of extreme rainfall. Deadly floods and landslides blocked highways, destroyed homes and caused devastating financial losses as they wiped out crops and livestock.

In the Guangdong village of Gaozhou, banana farmer Qizhao said he and local residents prepared for the storm by reinforcing their trees with poles, worried that Yagi could destroy months of hard work.

“The typhoon has not been as severe as initially feared and has so far caused minimal damage as the typhoon made landfall in Hainan (and not Guangdong),” he told Reuters.

Most severe alert

China’s Central Meteorological Agency renewed its red typhoon warning, the most severe alert, on Friday morning for Hainan and Guangdong.

Yagi had already sparked travel disruption across parts of southern China as authorities enacted storm warning systems to mitigate its impact ahead of arrival.

More than 400,000 residents across Hainan, including fishing and construction workers, have been moved to safety and more than 34,000 fishing boats have returned to port to take shelter from the typhoon, state media reported.

Authorities in Hainan ordered all tourist attractions to be shut down as they warned of “massive and destructive” winds.

Bracing for impact, people were seen taping windows and glass doors for additional reinforcement against the gusts. Some placed sandbags around door gaps to prevent flooding. Residents rushed to stock up on food and supplies, sparking long lines and empty shelves at supermarkets.

The outer bands of Yagi brought heavy rain and high winds to the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong overnight Thursday. Authorities raised the third-highest storm warning, a move that restricts some travel services and sparks school closures.

Multiple flights from Hong Kong have been canceled and the city’s stock market, one of Asia’s largest, was suspended. That storm warning was lowered shortly after midday on Friday.

Known as Enteng in the Philippines, Yagi had brought heavy rainfall across the country earlier in the week. At least 13 people were killed, Reuters reported. In some parts of Luzon, rainfall totaling 400 millimeters (15.8 inches) was reported, and rain from the storms outer bands has continued to drench parts of the Philippines in recent days.

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