HONG KONG:”Super Typhoon Yagi Hits Southern China”, Super Typhoon Yagi struck southern China’s Hainan island on Friday, September 6, with winds exceeding 230 km/h.
Hainan province evacuated over 400,000 people ahead of the storm’s expected landfall, while tens of thousands prepared to seek shelter in neighbouring Vietnam.
Yagi, which was a tropical storm earlier this week, has claimed at least 13 lives in the Philippines. The storm caused flooding and landslides on Luzon Island before intensifying into a super typhoon over the past few days.
The storm made landfall in China on Friday along the coast of Hainan – a popular holiday destination – and neighbouring Guangdong province, at 4.20pm local time, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, citing authorities.
The typhoon “is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane”, according to NASA Earth Data.
But climate change has made tropical storms more unpredictable while increasing their intensity – leading to heavy rains and violent gusts that cause flash floods and coastal damage, experts say.
After moving through southern China, Yagi will head towards Vietnam, on course to hit the northern and north-central regions around the famed UNESCO heritage site Halong Bay on Saturday.
“This will be the strongest typhoon (to hit northern Vietnam) in 20 years,” said Pham Duc Luan, head of the dyke management authority on Thursday.
More than 457,000 military personnel have been mobilised by the relief and rescue department of the defence ministry.