Typhoon Bebinca to hit Zhejiang during Mid-Autumn Festival

The 13th typhoon of this year, Typhoon Bebinca, is expected to make landfall in Zhejiang province during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. According to the latest forecast from Zhejiang's meteorological bureau, Typhoon Bebinca will enter the East China Sea before the holiday and then approach the province's coasts.

Bebinca is expected to move northwest at around 30 to 35 kilometers per hour, gradually intensifying. Its maximum intensity could reach the level of a severe typhoon.

In response, Zhejiang's provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters activated the maritime typhoon emergency response at 4 pm on Thursday in accordance with the province's emergency plan for flood control, typhoon response and drought relief. The maritime typhoon emergency response was adjusted to Level IV at noon on Friday.

Zhang Fa, a staff member of the Zhejiang Provincial Government's Flood, Typhoon, and Drought Control Headquarters, said: "The typhoon will pass through the Ryukyu Islands and enter the East China Sea on the night of Sept 14. It is expected to make landfall in the Zhejiang area between the night of the 15th and the early morning of Sept 16. Currently, the sea surface temperature in the East China Sea is relatively high, which will strengthen the typhoon. We expect that due to the impact of the typhoon, there will be heavy rainfall in parts of northern Zhejiang from Sept 15 to 16, mainly concentrated from the night of Sept 15 to the daytime of Sept 16, coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday."

"At present, all flood control personnel across the province have given up their vacations and are fully on duty. As the typhoon is expected to make landfall during the Mid-Autumn Festival, we urge everyone to reconsider their travel plans and avoid dangerous areas such as the coast. If you have any travel or outing plans, now is the time to make adjustments," he said.

Zhang added: "The Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, in coordination with relevant departments, has organized the evacuation of offshore fishing boats. We require that all fishing boats be evacuated to safe harbors by 6 pm on Sept 14, which is tomorrow, to avoid the storm. All recreational fishing boats are to cease operations, and all aquaculture workers must evacuate to shore."

Additionally, they have pre-positioned several rescue teams across the province, totaling 1,490 teams with 37,000 personnel. They have also arranged for large-scale disaster relief equipment, including 24,000 excavators and 5,623 other rescue devices such as vehicles, boats, water pumps and drones. Furthermore, they have coordinated two specialized rescue vessels for the East China Sea and six high-powered tugboats from CNOOC to provide professional rescue support.

Bebinca is a typical autumn typhoon, which can be particularly fierce. The recent Super Typhoon Yagi made landfall four times and was the strongest autumn typhoon to make landfall in China since meteorological records began. It maintained its status as a Super Typhoon for 64 hours, causing widespread destructive winds and rain across southern China.