Tornadoes kill 11 in Hubei as China braces for more extreme weather

BEIJING: Two tornadoes tore through central China’s Hubei province, killing at least 11 people and leaving one person missing, according to state media reports on Tuesday. Xinhua, citing Hubei’s emergency management authorities, said powerful winds of up to 149kph swept across the cities of Huangshi, Huanggang, Ezhou and Xianning over four hours on Monday evening.

The gales reached level 13 on the extended Beaufort wind force scale. State broadcaster CCTV aired footage from Huanggang showing rescue workers inspecting a heavily damaged truck cab that appeared to have been ripped apart by corrugated steel blown from the roof of a nearby building. Another clip showed a badly damaged white car lodged against a lamp post amid twisted sheets of metal.

Tornadoes are highly unusual in Hubei, which is a major industrial, automotive manufacturing and technology centre. Hubei Daily quoted Wang Xiaoling, an expert at the provincial meteorological bureau, as saying such storms are extremely rare in the province and that the last tornado there was recorded in May 2021.

China has faced a string of severe weather events that experts have linked to climate change. Torrential rain, intense summer heat and strong winds cause economic losses worth tens of billions of dollars every year, while also disrupting industrial activity and damaging crops.

Further rain warnings issued

The National Meteorological Centre said northeastern Hubei should prepare for more heavy to torrential rain on Tuesday. It also warned of heavy rainfall in parts of Guangxi in the southwest, the southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan, and the northern provinces of Jilin, Shandong and Liaoning, among other areas.

The forecast said Guangxi, which has already been hit by Typhoon Maysak, should brace for extremely heavy rainfall of up to 260 mm over the next 24 hours, with the potential to trigger landslides. Typhoon Maysak had killed at least six people and left 11 others missing in recent days.

In Gansu province in western China, two people remained missing after a landslide in a mountainous county, state media said. A total of 33 people were swept away in the early hours of the morning.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for "all-out efforts" to rescue people affected by the floods, CCTV reported on Tuesday.

Typhoon Bavi approaches

China is also tracking Super Typhoon Bavi as it moves across the Pacific toward Taiwan and is forecast to make landfall on China’s eastern coast over the weekend. Taiwan said the storm is expected to begin affecting the island from Friday, with the most severe wind and rain likely later that day and on Saturday.

Taiwan cabinet Secretary-General Xavier Chang said in a Facebook post that Bavi could bring more than one metre of rain to parts of the island, and that nearly 29,000 military personnel were on standby to support relief operations. Taiwan’s weather administration said the storm may weaken somewhat as it nears northern Taiwan, but could still remain a relatively large typhoon, ranging from the lower end of a strong typhoon to the upper end of a moderate one.

Bavi was carrying winds of up to 289 kph as it swept across Guam, Tinian, Saipan and Rota on Monday.