Typhoon Bavi has carved a destructive path across East Asia, killing at least 15 people in landslide-triggered deaths in the Philippines and forcing large-scale evacuations in Taiwan and Japan as the massive storm bears down on the Chinese coast. The deaths occurred on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, where two landslides driven by Bavi's heavy rains left six more people missing. The storm has been described as the largest typhoon to affect Taiwan in more than 30 years, with its strong-wind radius stretching approximately 380 kilometres.

In Taiwan, authorities evacuated more than 14,000 people — the majority from mountainous areas in the north and east, including the eastern county of Hualien — as forecasters warned of up to one metre of rainfall in some areas. Nearly all cities and counties declared a typhoon holiday, closing offices and schools. Over 900 international flights and all 274 domestic flights were cancelled, with carriers including Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways grounding hundreds of services across the region, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers. Taiwan's defence ministry placed some 29,000 soldiers on standby for relief operations. While Bavi is expected to pass to the northeast of Taiwan without making direct landfall, forecasters warned Friday night through Saturday daytime would bring the most intense conditions.

Japan's Sakishima Islands, part of Okinawa prefecture, bore the brunt of the storm's early passage. On Ishigaki — a popular tourist destination — debris flew through empty streets, ferry services were suspended and residents taped windows and secured their homes against gusts forecast to reach up to 198 kilometres per hour. Bavi had already struck Guam and the Northern Marianas earlier in the week as a super typhoon before weakening as it crossed the Pacific.

China faces a compounding crisis. After Typhoon Bavi passes Taiwan, it is forecast to make landfall near Wenzhou, a city of ten million people in eastern China, early on Sunday. Authorities issued an orange-level storm warning — China's second-highest — and evacuated around 17,000 people in Zhejiang province alone, while Beijing pre-positioned some 50,000 humanitarian relief items including folding beds, blankets and emergency kits in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. The challenge is severe: China is simultaneously still recovering from Typhoon Maysak, which struck earlier this week and killed at least 39 people, with 26 of those deaths caused by the collapse of the Liulan dam in the southern Guangxi region. Floodwaters in some Guangxi villages reached more than three metres high, requiring boat rescues, helicopter airdrops and military pontoon bridges to reach stranded residents and students. Maysak also triggered two rare tornadoes in the central Hubei province.

Experts have cautioned that northern Chinese provinces, which have less experience managing typhoons compared to those in the south, face particular risks as Bavi's remnants are expected to track as far as the Bohai Sea region near Beijing and Tianjin. President Xi Jinping called for maximum effort in rescue, medical care and resettlement operations to minimise casualties and prevent secondary disasters. The twin-typhoon emergency underscores the mounting pressure on China's emergency response systems during an unusually active storm season.