More than 17,000 people were evacuated in Zhejiang and 170,000 rescue workers were placed on standby as Typhoon Bavi headed toward China’s east coast Friday, after a week of deadly storms that already claimed 50 lives in two other parts of the country.
Who Pays When the Weather Hits
The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 162 kilometers, or 101 miles, per hour and was first expected to pass north of Taiwan, bringing heavy rains to the island of 23 million people from Friday night into Saturday. That’s the scale of the threat. The scale of the response was just as stark: schools were closed Friday in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, and fishing boats were tied up close together in ports in northern Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Central News Agency said many flights to Japan, Hong Kong and other destinations had been canceled through Saturday, though some were still scheduled. The typhoon’s current northwest track would take it over some remote Japanese islands before passing to Taiwan’s north on Saturday. It was forecast to make landfall Saturday night south of Shanghai, near the border between Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. The people in the storm’s path don’t get to choose any of that. The routes, the closures, the evacuations — those decisions come from above, and ordinary people live with the consequences.
The Apparatus on Standby
Official Xinhua News Agency said more than 17,000 people were evacuated in Zhejiang and 170,000 rescue workers were placed on standby. Fujian suspended some ferry routes because of strong winds and rough seas and called for fishing boats to return to port. That’s the machinery of emergency management: move people, stop transport, order boats in, wait for the next hit. Bavi had weakened from supertyphoon strength earlier this week, when it brought violent winds to Saipan and other U.S. territories in the Pacific.
The storm arrived while southern China was still dealing with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Maysak, which authorities said had killed 39 people in flooding after days of record rainfall in Guangxi. The rains breached reservoirs, including the dramatic collapse of part of a dam in Hengzhou that inundated a wide area with fast-flowing muddy water. People were stranded on the second and higher floors of buildings for days, many without power, until rescuers could reach them. That’s what disaster looks like when infrastructure fails and the people below are left waiting for help to arrive.
Deadly Week, Same Old Hierarchy
Another 11 people died in central China when severe thunderstorms and tornadoes hit Hubei province on Monday night. Separately, a landslide killed 21 forestry workers in western China’s Gansu province on Tuesday in a disaster that was not storm-related. The numbers keep climbing. The names of the dead don’t appear here, only the count, the province, the category of disaster, the official response.
The pattern is hard to miss. Storm after storm, flood after flood, the burden lands on workers, fishing communities, evacuees, and people trapped in damaged buildings while state agencies issue orders, suspend routes, and place rescue workers on standby. The machinery of authority can count the dead. It can close schools and cancel flights. It can’t undo the damage once the water breaks through, the wind tears in, or the ground gives way.