Morning Edition · Saturday, July 11, 2026UpdatedPublished at 7:01 AM EDT · New York

Typhoon Bavi Batters Japan's Southern Islands and Taiwan as Landslides Kill 15 in the Philippines

After hitting Japan's southern islands and Taiwan, the storm forced China to evacuate more than a million people as it neared landfall on the Fujian and Zhejiang coast.

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Typhoon Bavi Batters Japan's Southern Islands and Taiwan as Landslides Kill 15 in the Philippines

Updated at 7:01 AM EDT

Bavi advanced from "China preparing" to imminent landfall on the Fujian-Zhejiang coast, with authorities evacuating well over a million people, including nearly 1.72 million in Zhejiang.

Typhoon Bavi, the ninth storm of the season, moved across the northwestern Pacific as a powerful storm. In the Philippines, landslides killed 15 people, while Taiwan's government evacuated more than 14,000 people from mostly mountainous areas as the island shut down ahead of the storm. Japan's southern islands were hit directly, with flights and ferries suspended across Ishigaki Island and more than 24,000 households in Okinawa losing power as airlines canceled 345 flights.

Eastern China then ordered mass evacuations as Bavi approached the coast. China's Ministry of Emergency Management said the storm was forecast to make landfall on the evening of July 11 along the coast between Fuqing in Fujian province and Wenling in Zhejiang province. State media reported that Zhejiang had moved nearly 1.72 million residents to safety by Saturday morning, while Al Jazeera reported that more than half a million people were evacuated in Zhejiang and about 100,000 more in neighboring Fujian. Authorities also canceled hundreds of flights and trains as the storm intensified overnight. Indian and international meteorological accounts had earlier described Bavi as among the most powerful storms in years, with peak winds recorded near 290 kilometers per hour.

The storm's track crosses some of the world's densest manufacturing and shipping corridors. Port closures, grounded flights, and power outages in Okinawa, Taiwan, and China's eastern seaboard interrupt the movement of goods through a region central to global supply chains.

Part of a tracked trend

Disasters as Political and Supply Shocks

Major natural disasters in commodity-producing states translate into political instability and supply disruptions that markets increasingly have to price, recurring as climate and geological shocks hit fragile economies.

What this means

The immediate economic channel is disruption. Closed ports, grounded flights, and power loss across Taiwan, southern Japan, and eastern China idle factories and delay shipments in a corridor that carries a large share of global electronics and component trade. The exposed parties are manufacturers and shippers dependent on just-in-time flows through these hubs. The severity of the outcome depends on where the storm makes landfall on China's coast and how long major ports stay closed.

What to watch

The storm's landfall point on eastern China, since a strike on a major port cluster would extend the supply-chain disruption well beyond the islands already hit.
How quickly power and port operations are restored in Okinawa and Taiwan, the measure of whether the interruption is a brief pause or a lasting shock.

Observations to monitor, not financial advice.

3 sources

Synthesized from: The Hindu · The Japan Times · South China Morning Post