Tornadoes kill 17 in central China as Typhoon Bavi looms offshore | Climate News

Severe rain and winds lash southern Guangxi and central Hubei provinces, with President Xi urging an ‘all out’ response.

Tornadoes and storms battering central China have killed at least 17 people, injured hundreds and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, with President Xi Jinping calling for “all-out” rescue efforts, state media is reporting.

In southern Guangxi province, severe rain and flooding from Typhoon Maysak killed at least six people. Regional officials told a news conference that at least 130,000 people had been evacuated, but 11 are still missing.

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State media footage showed dire rescue scenes, including life vest-clad workers searching for the missing in inflatable boats and piles of wreckage where buildings had been.

At least 40 rivers and waterways in Guangxi were overflowing, CCTV reported, as Guangxi issued the highest-level red alert for flooding.

Thunderstorms and whipping winds killed 11 people and injured more than 300 in the central province of Hubei, where one person is missing, according to state news agency Xinhua. Nearly 5,000 houses sustained damage, with 22 others collapsed.

An unusual tornado roiled Hubei’s city of Huanggang, hitting a logistics company and a warehouse and lifting multiple trucks by as much as 30 metres (98 feet), Xinhua reported.

A man surnamed Wang said the intense winds “sucked out” his brother-in-law Zhang from his home. He was later found unconscious outside his apartment.

“Wall cabinets, sofas, coffee tables, dining tables and chairs vanished in an instant,” Wang told the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald. “It was as if the entire building had been hollowed out.”

Xi said on Tuesday that rescuers should “go all out” in organising emergency operations, CCTV reported.

Typhoon Bavi approaches

The deadly storms arrive as China braces for Super Typhoon Bavi, which made landfall on United States territorial islands Monday before shifting to the northwest.

The US National Weather Service reported Bavi was packing sustained winds of about 150mph (241km/h) Tuesday afternoon and was expected to build intensity overnight.

Bavi is forecast to make landfall on the country’s eastern coast by Thursday, according to Xinhua, bringing heavy winds and rain to eastern China.

The typhoon has left thousands of people without power on Guam and the Northern Marianas.

The island of Rota was reeling from the worst impact, including winds up to 180mph (290km/h) Monday, which felled trees and power lines and knocked out water supplies.

Rota Mayor Aubry Hocog told the AFP news agency she had been told that two people sustained non-fatal injuries, but no deaths were confirmed.

More than “50 percent of our island has undergone damages”, Hocog said, adding that it could take “two to three months” to fully restore power supply.