By Joe Cash, Yimou Lee and Mariko Katsumura
BEIJING/SUAO, Taiwan/TOKYO, July 9 (Reuters) - Fishermen sheltered in harbours, residents queued for sandbags and farmers raced to bring in crops on Thursday as China and Taiwan braced for Typhoon Bavi, possibly the most destructive tropical storm in years.
As Bavi churned southeast of Taiwan, rescue workers in southern China continued to search for victims and survivors of Typhoon Maysak, which killed at least 39 people earlier this week.
In the northeastern
Taiwanese fishing town of Suao, hundreds of boats crowded into port to shelter from the approaching storm.
"Don't be fooled by the nice and calm weather now. A storm like this could be the most terrifying," said Chen Ming-hui, captain of a 3-metric-ton fishing vessel, recalling how previous typhoons had sunk boats and inundated the town.
Authorities in Taiwan warned that Bavi could bring up to one metre (3.3 feet) of rain to mountains north of Taipei and placed about 29,000 soldiers on standby, according to the defence ministry. The storm could become Taiwan's most powerful typhoon since Kong-rey in 2024, which killed three people.
Bavi, with winds approaching 200 kph (124 mph), spans about 1,000 km (621 miles) at its widest point, roughly the width of France, and is forecast to skirt northern Taiwan before making landfall in China's eastern Fujian province on Saturday evening, according to China's National Meteorological Centre.
Storms of this size have been "fairly rare in recent years," Jason Chang, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration forecaster, told Reuters, adding that Bavi is set to be the largest storm by size to hit the island since 1987.
Taiwan's main international airport at Taoyuan said Taiwanese airlines had cancelled all Saturday departures because of the typhoon.
Across the Taiwan Strait, rescue workers in China's Guangxi region were still combing through wreckage left by Typhoon Maysak. At least 39 people were killed, with nine others still missing.
SEEKING SHELTER FROM THE STORM
China, the world's second-largest economy, as well as neighbouring Japan and Taiwan, are increasingly exposed to destructive weather events that scientists link to climate change. This year is of particular concern because the expected emergence of El Nino could drive up temperatures and help fuel more frequent and intense typhoons.
"Some loss of wind intensity is anticipated starting Thursday, but Bavi will remain a dangerous storm as it impacts Taiwan and eastern China later Friday into Monday," said Jason Nicholls, an expert at AccuWeather, a commercial forecasting service.
In Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, the country's meteorological agency warned residents to remain on high alert on Friday and Saturday for violent winds, landslides, flooding and storm surges.
Japan Airlines said it had cancelled 50 flights for Friday, affecting about 7,600 passengers, while All Nippon Airways cancelled 34 flights affecting around 1,800 travellers, with further cancellations planned for Saturday.
"We should pay much attention to Bavi as it has spent a long time intensifying over the open Pacific, extracting energy from warm oceans and accumulating large amounts of moisture," said Xiangbo Feng, a tropical cyclone researcher at Imperial College London.
"When it makes landfall or gets close to coastal regions, the damage could be catastrophic. A small change in Bavi's track could have a significant influence."
MAYSAK'S DEADLY AFTERMATH
Even as authorities prepared for Bavi's arrival, communities in southern China were still grappling with the devastation left by Typhoon Maysak.
The remnants of Maysak spawned at least two inland tornadoes and major flooding in China's central Hubei province.
In the worst-hit towns in the Guangxi region, residents were trying to piece their lives back together before the next storm hit. Footage broadcast by state media showed people clambering out of second-storey windows onto the backs of rescue workers to escape their apartments and pulling belongings from floodwaters, while aid workers deployed drones to deliver essentials to inaccessible areas.
Rows of dead pigs lay on their backs at a farm in Binyang County in images published by Beijing News, their bloated bodies mottled grey and already decomposing after being submerged for two days, the report said.
At Guigang Zoo, three lions died in floodwaters, China's Global Times reported, while about 100 animals — including zebras, porcupines, parrots and raccoons — remained missing, according to the zoo's operator.
(Reporting by Joe Cash and Xiuhao Chen in Beijing, Yimou Lee in Taipei & Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Perry, Thomas Derpinghaus and Ros Russell)
