BEIJING — Late Friday night, the trajectory of a typhoon shifted, ultimately making landfall on China’s southern Hainan island. According to the Hainan Meteorological Service, Typhoon Wutip touched down in Basuo township within Dongfang city at a severe tropical storm level, exhibiting maximum sustained winds of 30 meters per second.
Marking its place in history, this event represents only the second occasion in 70 years that the island has experienced the country’s first typhoon of the year. Initially, forecasts predicted that Typhoon Wutip would strike the Chinese mainland near the border of Guangdong province and the Guangxi region around noon on Saturday.
In preparation for the storm, authorities in Guangdong province undertook extensive precautionary measures by evacuating more than 10,000 residents, closing educational institutions, and halting flights, trains, and vessels on Friday. However, details about casualties or injuries, if any, remain unconfirmed.
Imagery shared by a local Chinese news outlet captured the aftermath in Sanya, a well-known beach resort located on Hainan. The images showed uprooted trees and a collapsed corrugated metal fence at a construction site. Furthermore, Sanya’s schools, construction sites, and tourist spots were shut down, and flight operations at the city’s airport came to a halt, as reported by the official Xinhua News Agency.
On Thursday night, the challenging conditions necessitated the rescue of a dozen crew members from a distressed cargo ship. They were successfully transferred to a rescue vessel despite rough seas characterized by waves reaching 3 meters in height.
Before its landfall, Typhoon Wutip had maximum sustained winds of 119 kilometers per hour. In response, Guangdong activated rescue boats and helicopters, and more than 49,000 fishing boats retreated to safety at port. The provincial meteorological department also forecasted heavy rain and warned of possible tornadoes.
“Wutip,” meaning “butterfly” in Cantonese, reflects the naming process wherein countries and Chinese regions, including Hong Kong and Macao, propose names for storms during the typhoon season. Notably, the previous occurrence of the first typhoon making landfall in Hainan was in 2008 with Typhoon Neoguri, a name that translates to “raccoon” in Korean.