Typhoon Bavi Kills 18 in the Philippines as Millions Flee in China
Typhoon Bavi has killed at least 18 people in the southern Philippines, where monsoon-amplified rains triggered landslides and floods, before making landfall in eastern China. Chinese authorities evacuated well over a million people — by some counts nearly three million — across Zhejiang province ahead of the storm, opening thousands of shelters, and the mass pre-emptive evacuation appears to have prevented deaths on the mainland. The storm, among the strongest to hit the region in July for decades, has since weakened.
The contrast between the two countries is the story: in the Philippines, where the rains fell on saturated hillsides and poorer communities, the toll climbed into the dozens; in China, a vast, disciplined evacuation of millions turned a potential catastrophe into a manageable emergency. It is a reminder that a disaster’s death toll is set as much by preparation and wealth as by the strength of the storm. Bavi arrives in a summer of extremes across the northern hemisphere, from Europe’s wildfires to Asia’s floods, the signature of a warming climate loading the dice towards heavier rain and fiercer storms. For the region the immediate work is rescue and clean-up; for the wider world it is another data point in a pattern that is no longer deniable. Watch the Philippine toll as remote areas are reached, and the scale of the damage in China once the waters recede.