Typhoon Bavi Weakens to Tropical Storm After Battering Eastern China, Death Toll in Philippines Climbs to 18

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From Typhoon to Tropical Storm

Bavi came ashore late Saturday near Yuhuan in China's Zhejiang province with sustained winds of about 144 km/h (90 mph), before a second landfall further south in Yueqing. By Sunday, the storm had been downgraded to a severe tropical storm, with authorities in the region reporting no immediate damage or casualties from the Chinese landfall itself.

The system continued to lose strength as it pushed inland. By Sunday afternoon, Bavi had crossed into Anhui province, northwest of Zhejiang, and forecasters expected it to track further northeast toward the Yellow Sea by Tuesday. Even as a weakened tropical storm, Bavi still carried enough moisture to trigger fresh flooding and torrential rain warnings across several provinces.

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Millions Evacuated, Transport Networks Disrupted

The scale of China's evacuation effort grew as Bavi approached the coast. More than 2.2 million people were evacuated in Zhejiang province alone, according to state media, while Shanghai moved over 290,000 residents out of at-risk areas and Fujian province evacuated more than 180,000 people.

The storm's winds proved destructive even at reduced strength. In the coastal city of Yueqing, more than 1,300 trees were toppled, including at least 700 uprooted, according to state broadcaster CCTV. One resident described the scene as roof tiles and tree branches falling while floodwater swallowed a walkway near his home, according to Reuters.

Air and rail travel across the region ground to a halt. Two major railway stations in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang, suspended all services, while 327 flights were cancelled at the city's Xiaoshan International Airport. In nearby Shanghai, 684 flights and more than 1,600 trains were cancelled.

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Taiwan Spared Direct Hit, But Still Battered

Bavi passed north of Taiwan without making a direct landfall, but the storm still lashed the island with strong winds and rain. Taiwan's fire department reported that at least 134 people across the island were injured — many hurt while riding motorcycles or bicycles in high winds, or from slipping on rain-soaked roads, rather than from direct storm damage.

The disruption to daily life was extensive nonetheless. Hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled in the days before the storm passed, and more than 170,000 households experienced power outages. Taiwanese forecasters had earlier warned that Bavi could become the largest typhoon to affect the island in more than three decades, though its wind field ultimately shrank as it approached.

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Deadly Landslides in the Philippines

While China and Taiwan avoided storm-related deaths, the toll in the Philippines continued to rise. The death toll from landslides and other incidents triggered by Bavi's rains climbed to 18, with most fatalities recorded on the southern island of Mindanao. Nearly 11,000 people across the archipelago were forced to flee their homes, and dozens of ports remained closed as vessels sheltered from rough seas.

The disaster unfolded even though Bavi never made landfall in the Philippines. Instead, the storm intensified the seasonal southwest monsoon, which dumped heavy rain on communities already weakened by a recent earthquake in Mindanao. The worst single incident, a landslide in Sarangani province, killed ten people; another in Lanao del Sur killed several more and left others missing.

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A Region Already Battered by Extreme Weather

Bavi's arrival in China came on top of an already severe run of extreme weather. Storms in the days before Bavi's landfall had already left at least 39 people dead in southern and central China, causing dozens of rivers to overflow and a reservoir to burst. That earlier destruction is separate from Bavi's toll, but it left flood defenses and emergency services in the region already stretched thin before the new storm arrived.

Beijing's tightly controlled state media apparatus has, as usual, focused its coverage on evacuation logistics and infrastructure damage, with comparatively little independent scrutiny of how well-prepared local governments actually were — a recurring pattern in China's handling of natural disasters under Communist Party rule, where local officials often face pressure to downplay shortcomings rather than report them transparently.

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Outlook

Chinese meteorological authorities have warned that the danger has not passed simply because Bavi weakened. Heavy to torrential rain was still being recorded Sunday afternoon in provinces including Anhui, and forecasters expect strong winds and rain to affect many eastern and northeastern Chinese cities into Monday before the system tracks out toward the Yellow Sea.

In the Philippines, search efforts continue for those still missing in the hardest-hit landslide areas, while disaster officials assess the damage to the more than half a million people affected nationwide. Taiwan, meanwhile, is shifting from storm preparation to cleanup, with warnings for mountainous areas remaining in place as a precaution against further landslides.

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Sources:

1. CBS News – "Former super typhoon Bavi weakens but still lashes China with powerful winds, rain": https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-super-typhoon-bavi-weakens-lashes-china-powerful-winds-rain/
2. Al Jazeera – "Typhoon Bavi weakens to tropical storm as it slams into eastern China": https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/12/typhoon-bavi-weakens-to-tropical-storm-as-it-slams-into-eastern-china
3. Hong Kong Free Press (AFP) – "Typhoon Bavi makes landfall in China as death toll in Philippines rises to 18": https://hongkongfp.com/2026/07/12/typhoon-bavi-makes-landfall-in-china-as-death-toll-in-philippines-rises-to-18/
4. The Star (dpa) – "Typhoon Bavi's death toll in the Philippines rises to 17, nine still missing": https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2026/07/11/typhoon-bavi039s-death-toll-in-the-philippines-rises-to-17-nine-still-missing

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