Super Typhoon Yagi makes landfall in 'China's Hawaii'

Super Typhoon Yagi landed in China’s Hainan yesterday, bringing violent gales and heavy rain that triggered widespread power outages, paralysing the tourist island province known as “China’s Hawaii”.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 145mph near its centre, Yagi registers as the world’s second-most powerful tropical cyclone in 2024 so far, after the category 5 Atlantic hurricane Beryl, and the most severe in the Pacific basin this year.

After more than doubling in strength since killing 16 people in the northern Philippines earlier this week, Yagi slammed into the city of Wenchang in Hainan yesterday afternoon. A little more than an hour after Yagi’s arrival, Hainan saw power outages that affected 830,000 households in the province, the official news agency Xinhua said.