Typhoon Bavi made landfall in the coastal city of Taizhou in eastern China late Saturday, July 11, 2026.
The scale of the evacuation highlights the extreme risk posed by severe winds and heavy rain in the densely populated Zhejiang province. Rapid mobilization is critical in this region to prevent mass casualties during landfall.
Chinese authorities coordinated the movement of residents to protect them from the storm's impact. Reports on the total number of evacuees vary across sources, though multiple high-trust outlets said nearly 2 million people [1], [2], [3] were moved to safety. Other reports said the number exceeded 1.8 million [4] or more than 1.7 million [6]. One report listed the figure as more than 600,000 [5], though this is significantly lower than the consensus from other primary reporting agencies.
The storm struck Taizhou, a key city in the coastal Zhejiang province. Officials said they focused on clearing high-risk coastal areas to minimize the potential for loss of life as the system moved inland.
Emergency crews remained on alert as the storm progressed. The evacuation effort was designed to safeguard the population from the most volatile elements of the typhoon, specifically the combination of storm surges and torrential rainfall.
Local governments in eastern China frequently face these seasonal threats, but the magnitude of the response for Typhoon Bavi reflects the perceived severity of this specific weather system. The coordination between provincial and city-level authorities ensured that nearly 2 million people [1] were relocated before the late Saturday landfall [7].
“Typhoon Bavi made landfall in the coastal city of Taizhou in eastern China late Saturday.”
The massive scale of the evacuation for Typhoon Bavi underscores China's reliance on aggressive, state-led mobilization to mitigate the impact of natural disasters. By relocating nearly 2 million people, the government prioritized the prevention of immediate casualties over the economic disruption caused by such a large-scale displacement in a critical industrial and coastal hub like Zhejiang province.
