Asia’s strongest storm this year, super typhoon Yagi, made landfall on China’s Hainan island province on Friday, bringing gales and heavy rain that shut schools for a second day and led to flight cancellations in the South China Sea region.
With maximum sustained winds of 145 mph near its center, Yagi is the world’s second-most powerful tropical cyclone of 2024, after Category 5 Atlantic hurricane Beryl. Yagi has been the most severe storm in the Pacific basin this year.
Yagi shut schools, businesses, and transport links in Hong Kong, Macau, Hainan, and Guangdong, and is predicted to hit Vietnam and Laos over the weekend.
Yagi has more than doubled in strength since killing 16 people in the northern Philippines earlier this week.