Two killed, 92 injured as super Typhoon Yagi wreaks havoc in China

BEIJING: Two people were killed and 92 others injured as super Typhoon Yagi pounded south China’s island province of Hainan with heavy rain and gusty winds, local authorities said Saturday.

Yagi, the 11th typhoon of this year, made two landfalls in China on Friday, first striking Hainan and later Guangdong province.

China has sounded a red alert on Friday and warned of floods in the southern region as Yagi made landfall first in Hainan followed by southern Guangdong province and is expected to hit China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and northern Vietnam.

More than one million people have been evacuated in the affected areas with work, classes and businesses suspended and over 100 flights cancelled on Friday, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Heavy rain and gusty winds pounded Hainan, with the epicentre at Wenchang city – home to one of the country’s rocket launch sites. The city is facing power outages in some areas.

Videos circulating on social media show the province’s iconic coconut trees battered, snapped and toppled. Fallen billboards, destroyed roofs and overturned vehicles were everywhere.

Residents said it was “horrible” to see the windows of their homes smashed and their furniture waterlogged by the storm. Some said they were worried about stray cats and dogs, the Post reported.

Yagi, which packed winds of up to about 245km/h (152mph) near its centre, made landfall in Wenchang at around 4 pm on Friday, according to the Hainan meteorological service.

From 1949 to 2023, 106 typhoons landed in Hainan but only nine were classified as super typhoons.

Guangdong’s provincial governor Wang Weizhong urged local officials to “spare no effort” and “win the hard battle” against Yagi after it landed in Zhanjiang city on Friday night. The storm is expected to bring heavy rainfall and gales to western Guangdong province and the Pearl River Delta on Saturday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged beefed-up disaster relief efforts after the typhoon struck the country's southern region.