HONG KONG — The deadly Super Typhoon Yagi made landfall in China on Friday, with much of life in the region brought to a standstill by what officials said could be the strongest storm to hit the country’s southern coast in a decade.
Yagi is the biggest storm in Asia so far this year and the world’s second-most powerful tropical cyclone of 2024 after Hurricane Beryl, which affected the U.S. Gulf Coast and parts of Mexico and the Caribbean in June and July.
The storm has left classes canceled, streets deserted, some 400,000 people evacuated and flights disrupted in the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, China’s island province of Hainan and Guangdong, China’s most populous province with about 125 million people.
In an advisory on Thursday, the Indo-Pacific Tropical Cyclone Warning Center said Yagi was “an extremely dangerous and powerful super typhoon” that could make “potentially catastrophic landfall” in Hainan.
A super typhoon is equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.
The typhoon has more than doubled in strength since earlier this week, when it killed 16 people as it passed through the Philippines. On Friday it had maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour near its center.
Yagi made landfall in the Hainan city of Wenchang. State media reported that 410,000 people had been evacuated on the island, which is a popular tourist destination.
China’s Ministry of Natural Resources said Yagi could be the strongest typhoon to hit China’s southern coast since Typhoon Rammasun in 2014, which killed 88 people across four provinces.
It is rare for super typhoons to make landfall in Hainan, accounting for only nine of the 106 typhoons to hit the island from 1949 to 2023, according to Reuters.
The storm is expected to weaken after hitting Hainan and then head toward Vietnam and Laos over the weekend. Authorities in Vietnam said four northern airports, including the one in Hanoi, would be closed on Saturday due to the storm.
Parts of the region began experiencing strong winds and heavy rain along with thunder and lightning overnight and into Friday morning.
In the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, the stock exchange and schools were closed on Friday after the city of 7.5 million raised its typhoon warning Thursday evening. Businesses began to reopen around midday on Friday after the typhoon warning was lowered by one notch.
Hong Kong officials said nine people had been injured and there were more than 100 reports of fallen trees. The city’s airport authority said 80% of flights scheduled for Friday would depart on time.
Transportation was disrupted across southern China on Friday amid the storm. The world’s longest sea crossing, a bridge that connects Hong Kong with the Chinese territory of Macau and the Chinese city of Zhuhai in Guangdong, was also closed.
Scientists say warming oceans are making typhoons and hurricanes stronger and more frequent. Last week, Japan experienced one of its strongest storms in decades when it was hit by Typhoon Shanshan, which killed at least seven people and caused widespread damage.