15 Dead as Typhoon Bavi Barrels Toward Taiwan, China

Typhoon Bavi has already killed at least 15 people in landslides in the southern Philippines, before its expected push toward Taiwan and south-eastern China.

The storm spans 1,000km (620 miles) at its widest point and is forecast to rank among the strongest storms to hit the region in decades, according to BBC World. The urgent question now is whether authorities can move fast enough before Bavi’s rainbands, not just its core, start doing the worst damage.

How much damage has Typhoon Bavi caused before landfall?

The first confirmed deaths are in the Philippines, not Taiwan or China. Landslides on the island of Mindanao buried families overnight, and rescuers are still searching for missing people.

Officials say moderate to heavy rain will keep drenching parts of the Philippines through the weekend. That matters because Bavi is still moving across the Pacific toward Taiwan, which means the storm is already lethal before its main landfall sequence.

Bavi is expected to dump rain on northern and eastern Taiwan, as well as remote Japanese islands, before making landfall in south-eastern China on Saturday. Dozens of flights have been cancelled, schools have suspended classes, and supermarket shelves have been cleared as residents stock up.

XOOMAR analysis: The headline threat is not only wind speed. A storm that wide can punish multiple places at once, and the Philippines deaths show how rain falling away from the center can still trigger deadly slope failures.

Why are the Philippines deaths the warning signal for Taiwan?

The landslides in Mindanao underline the storm’s most immediate danger: saturated ground giving way under heavy rain. In the Philippines, families were buried overnight, and rescue teams are still looking for those missing.

That pattern is relevant for Taiwan because authorities have warned Bavi could bring up to 1m (39 inches) of rainfall. Taiwan’s defence ministry has put about 29,000 soldiers on standby for relief efforts, according to the BBC report.

The island’s Central Weather Administration told Reuters that Bavi is set to be the largest storm, by size, to hit Taiwan since 1987. Farmers rushed to harvest or protect crops while the weather held earlier on Friday, and fishermen secured their vessels.

"Don't be fooled by the nice and calm weather now. A storm like this could be the most terrifying," 60-year-old fisherman Chen Ming-hui told Reuters.

The lesson from Mindanao is blunt. Calm weather before arrival can hide the scale of a system whose outer bands arrive first and whose rainfall can outlast the most violent winds.

For readers tracking landslide disasters across Asia, XOOMAR has also covered related slope-failure risks in Bangladesh Landslides Kill 8 Rohingya on Deadly Slopes and Rohingya Camp Landslide Buries School, Kills 5 Children. Those cases are separate from Bavi, but they show why heavy rain on unstable ground can turn quickly into mass-casualty emergencies.

How are Taiwan, Japan and China preparing while Bavi’s track shifts?

Taiwan is distributing thousands of sandbags to residents and shop owners in flood-prone areas. Schools and classes have been suspended across parts of the region, while residents have stripped supermarket shelves to prepare for the typhoon.

Flight disruption is already widening. Japan Airlines has axed more than 100 flights for Friday and Saturday, affecting nearly 20,000 passengers. All Nippon Airways has cancelled more than 160 flights through Sunday, also affecting about 20,000 people, according to Reuters figures cited in the source material.

Thai Airways and Malaysia Airlines have also grounded flights to and from Taipei. In Japan’s remote Sakishima Islands, photographs shared online show residents taping windows and covering homes and shops with windproof nets.

In Taiwan, the preparation is practical and local: harvest crops, secure boats, stack sandbags, and get relief forces ready. The supplied reports do not confirm power outages or port closures, so the clearest verified disruptions so far are flights, schools, supply runs, sandbagging, and emergency deployments.

XOOMAR analysis: Bavi’s size changes the planning problem. A narrower storm can miss a city with a small track shift. A 1,000km storm gives authorities less room for comfort because rain and wind can reach far beyond the center line.

Could Bavi’s second act in China become the longer problem?

China has warned of “significant impact” from Typhoon Bavi, which is expected to smash into south-eastern Fujian province before potentially moving northward. Some forecasts suggest Bavi could make landfall twice in China.

Ma Jun, director of China’s Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, warned that Bavi’s rainbands could stretch far beyond the initial coastal strike.

"Bavi's large size and abundant energy mean its remnants and outer rainbands could move from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces toward the Bohai Sea region," said Ma Jun.

He added that northern provinces, which have “less experience” dealing with typhoons than southern areas, should “strengthen preparations”.

The timing is grim. Parts of southern China are still recovering from Typhoon Maysak, which left at least 39 people dead earlier this week. More than 130,000 people were evacuated, mostly in Guangxi, while Maysak killed large swathes of livestock, caused major agricultural losses, and spurred two rare tornadoes in Hubei province.

Bavi’s next test is not just where the eye crosses land on Saturday. The more important watch item is how far its outer rainbands travel after Fujian, whether the second-landfall forecasts hold, and whether Taiwan’s projected rainfall approaches the 1m level authorities have warned about.

Impact Analysis

• Bavi has already turned deadly in the Philippines before its main landfall sequence.
• The storm’s 1,000km width means damaging rainbands can affect multiple regions at once.
• Taiwan and south-eastern China face serious flooding and landslide risks as authorities race to prepare.