China evacuates 400,000 as Super Typhoon Yagi barrels towards Hainan

Transport links shuttered as Asia’s strongest storm this year drenches southern China and will impact Vietnam and Laos.

Powerful gales and heavy rain brought by Super Typhoon Yagi hit southern China as more than 400,000 people were forced to evacuate with the storm approaching Hainan province.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 245km/h (152mph) near its centre, Yagi registers as the world’s second-most powerful tropical cyclone in 2024, after the Category 5 Atlantic Hurricane Beryl, and the most severe in the Pacific basin.

On Friday, at least 419,367 residents in the heavily populated island province of Hainan, a popular holiday destination, were relocated ahead of the storm’s expected landfall, state news agency Xinhua reported.

After more than doubling in strength since killing 16 people in the northern Philippines earlier this week, Yagi’s eye was about 100km (62 miles) offshore Hainan, with no loss of wind speed overnight.

It is expected to make landfall along China’s coast between Wenchang in Hainan and Leizhou in Guangdong province later on Friday.

The Ministry of Water Resources on Thursday raised its emergency response to flooding in both provinces to the third-highest tier.

“Yagi is likely to be the strongest typhoon to hit China’s southern coast since 2014, making flood and prevention work very challenging,” Xinhua said, citing a meeting held by flood officials.

Asia’s strongest storm this year is also forcing tens of thousands of people to hunker down in neighbouring Vietnam, where it is expected to hit over the weekend.

Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority said four airports in the north, including Hanoi’s Noi Bai International, would be closed on Saturday.

Laos is also expected to be affected by Yagi.

In southern China, transport links were mostly shuttered on Friday. Many flights were cancelled in Hainan, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

The world’s longest sea crossing, the main bridge linking Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai in Guangdong, was closed.

In Hong Kong, the stock exchange was shuttered while schools and banks were closed on Friday.

Yagi’s projected landfall in Hainan is rare. From 1949 to 2023, 106 typhoons hit the island but only nine were classified as super typhoons.

Yagi is set to be the most severe storm to land in Hainan since 2014, when Typhoon Rammasun slammed into the island province as a Category 5 tropical cyclone and killed 88 people, causing economic losses worth $6.25bn.

Scientists say that typhoons are becoming stronger, driven by warmer oceans, amid climate change.

Last week, Typhoon Shanshan slammed into southwestern Japan, the strongest storm to hit the country in decades.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies