More than one million people have been forced to leave their homes behind in China as a precautionary measure as a typhoon tore through northern Taiwan and Japan's remote southwestern islands.
Extreme weather has already wreaked havoc on southern and central China this week, with storms leaving at least 39 dead and causing dozens of rivers to overflow and a reservoir dam to burst.
Typhoon Bavi in China
Typhoon Bavi is expected to make landfall early on Sunday around Wenzhou, a metropolis of nearly 10 million people in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
According to the city government, 887,801 people had already been evacuated from their homes on Friday, July 10.
"The proactive, all-out mobilisation, which is sparing no effort or cost, is undertaken entirely to guard against the (worst-case) scenario," Wenzhou authorities said in a statement.
China raises emergency responses amid typhoon
Typhoon Bavi has triggered widespread disaster prevention efforts, as eastern China braces for the powerful storm with evacuations and high alerts.
China's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Friday raised its emergency response for flood control and typhoon prevention in Zhejinag and Fujin provinces from Level III to Level II.
_updates.jpg)
As of 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 11, Zhejiang had evacuated nearly 1.72 million residents to safe locations, local authorities said.
Moreover, a total of 12,154 primary and secondary schools, kindergartens and off-campus tutoring institutions have suspended classes, while 830 construction sites have halted work.
All 163 local passenger ferry routes are suspended, 38 trains and 461 flights have been cancelled, and 444 A-level tourist attractions are temporarily closed to avoid safety risks.
Chaos in Taiwan
Besides China, streets remained abandoned for a second day in northern Taiwan as powerful rain and wind battered the region.
More than 14,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, hundreds of flights have been cancelled and more than 170,000 households across the island have been hit with power outages because of the storm.
