China evacuated more than 600,000 people on Saturday ahead of Typhoon Bavi hitting the major eastern city of Wenzhou after pummelling Japan’s southern Sakishima island chain with heavy rain and violent winds and brushing past northern Taiwan.
Even as Bavi continues to slow and weaken on its northwesterly path over cooler seas, the typhoon is still a potent risk due to the sheer volume of moisture it holds within its rain bands, about the size of France from end to end.
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Bavi is forecast to make landfall around Wenzhou, home to some 10 million people, in the early hours of Sunday.
State media said more than half a million people had been evacuated in Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located, and more than 100,000 in neighboring Fujian province.
