Super Typhoon Yagi battered the island province of Hainan in south China on Saturday, causing at least two fatalities and 92 injuries with strong gusts and rain.
On Friday, Yagi, the 11th typhoon of the year, made two landfalls in China, first hitting the province of Guangdong and then Hainan.
Super Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s biggest storm of the year, made landfall in China’s Hainan province on Friday. It brought with it fierce gusts and a lot of rain, which caused extensive power outages and rendered the popular island province known as “China’s Hawaii” impassable.
With maximum sustained winds around its center of 234 km/h (145 mph), Yagi is the most severe tropical cyclone in the Pacific basin this year and, after Category 5 Atlantic hurricane Beryl, the second most intense tropical cyclone in the globe so far in 2024.
On Friday afternoon, Yagi struck the city of Wenchang in Hainan, more than doubling in power since claiming 16 lives in the northern Philippines earlier this week.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, power outages in Hainan hit 830,000 households just over an hour after Yagi arrived.
According to Xinhua, the provincial power supply department had assembled a 7,000-person emergency team that would start repairs as soon as circumstances allowed.
Power has been restored to 260,000 homes by Friday night.
The island, famous for its white sand beaches and opulent hotels, had closed shops, canceled ferries and flights, and advised its more than 10 million residents not to leave the island before Yagi arrived.
The typhoon has already closed airports in Vietnam, where it is expected to impact along with Laos during the weekend, as well as schools, companies, and transportation hubs in Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangdong province.
With winds still surpassing 200 kph, Yagi made its second landfall in Guangdong on Friday night after crossing the Qiongzhou Strait north of Hainan.
By midday, over 574,500 individuals in Guangdong had been taken out of dangerous regions; almost two-thirds of them were from the city of Zhanjiang.
Schools remained closed and the stock exchange closed in Hong Kong’s business district.
The airport authorities of Hong Kong reported that after 50 flights were canceled on Thursday, the more than 7 million-person city’s operations had mostly resumed.
additionally reduced the intensity of its typhoon alert at lunchtime, as Yagi headed westward into Vietnam.
The primary bridge in Guangdong that connects Hong Kong to Macau and Zhuhai, the longest sea crossing in the world, reopened on Friday afternoon after being closed since Thursday.
But Yagi’s powerful rainbands will continue to produce strong, squally rains to the region. The highest rain alert was issued by neighboringShenzhen.
