Super Typhoon Yagi Intimidates, Yet Locals Claim Readiness
Super Typhoon Yagi poses a significant threat, yet community members express increased readiness for the impending storm.
TroibNews 
"I couldn't sleep at all last night. The wind was so strong. Wild shrieks and howling were all over the place. When I looked out, all kinds of items were flying in the air – bricks, woods… It was very scary," recounted Huang Yiming, a photographer from Haikou, the provincial capital of Hainan in southern China, describing the terrifying night when Super Typhoon Yagi struck.
The lethal storm touched down near Haikou in Wenchang City on Friday evening. By Saturday afternoon, it had claimed four lives and left 95 people injured across the region.
CN reached out to people in Haikou and Wenchang for insights. Despite disrupted communication channels, some residents managed to share their experiences and images detailing Yagi’s destruction.
"Super, super, super powerful. All buildings with more than 15 floors were shaking. Windows were blown away, even refrigerators," said Xiaopeng, a 39-year-old resident of Haikou, in a conversation with CN on Saturday.
"As a native, it's my first time seeing such a big typhoon," he noted.
"My family moved to a hotel that provided electricity, water, internet and parking space before Yagi arrived. Our house is currently without water, electricity and internet," shared Xie, another Haikou local, mentioning that his apartment on the 17th floor was particularly vulnerable during such fierce storms.
"Our village is still closed off. Communication has been restored but the internet signal is not very stable. Yesterday was horrifying. Toppled trees were everywhere. We were so scared," a Wenchang resident named Feng relayed to CN.
There have been comparisons between Yagi and Rammasun, another devastating typhoon that struck Hainan in 2014, resulting in 46 fatalities.
"For a typhoon, Rammasun is like an 18-year-old boy, but Yagi is a 30-year-old man at his prime," Xiaopeng remarked.
Despite the severe ordeal, many said they felt better equipped this time around.
"In Wenchang, people used to build tiled houses so when Rammasun came, all houses collapsed. My village, Taoli Village, for example, was nearly flattened, including our house. After Rammasun, people started to shift to apartments or other buildings. Rammasun also taught us to be more vigilant like trimming trees and reinforcing buildings in advance, so this time the damage was significantly reduced," Feng elaborate to CN.
Xie from Haikou concurred, emphasizing their preparedness.
"Tiled houses cannot resist strong winds so a lot of the roofs were blown off the last time. This time, we had plans. A few months ago, the city started to trim trees. People were also sent to reinforce the sewage system to avoid waterlogging," he explained.
Preventative measures were taken throughout Guangdong and Hainan, where authorities dispatched teams to install iron doors and deploy sandbags ahead of Yagi’s arrival. Moreover, Guangdong mobilized 8,700 personnel to secure the reservoirs in advance.
Before the storm, Hainan also moved 35,000 fishing boats to safer locations.
Making landfall twice on Friday—first in Hainan and then in Guangdong—Yagi marked the 11th typhoon of 2024.
By 5 p.m. Saturday, authorities in Haikou had evacuated around 105,500 people, while over 167,800 trees were uprooted and 56,742 hectares of agricultural land adversely affected.
In Wenchang, more than 25,000 homes suffered damage and 792 communication base stations were rendered inoperable, with widespread power outages affecting 82.3 percent of the area.
Numerous regions in Haikou and Wenchang still lacked access to water and communication systems, with the populace continuing to suffer from the aftermath.
"The most urgent thing is for water, electricity and transportation to be restored as soon as possible. Life supplies are not a big problem in the short term. I think preventing high temperature and contagious diseases are more important than supplies this time," Feng told CN.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the aftermath of Yagi resulted in nine fatalities and 186 injuries, as reported by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Sunday morning.
Ian Smith for TROIB News
The lethal storm touched down near Haikou in Wenchang City on Friday evening. By Saturday afternoon, it had claimed four lives and left 95 people injured across the region.
CN reached out to people in Haikou and Wenchang for insights. Despite disrupted communication channels, some residents managed to share their experiences and images detailing Yagi’s destruction.
"Super, super, super powerful. All buildings with more than 15 floors were shaking. Windows were blown away, even refrigerators," said Xiaopeng, a 39-year-old resident of Haikou, in a conversation with CN on Saturday.
"As a native, it's my first time seeing such a big typhoon," he noted.
"My family moved to a hotel that provided electricity, water, internet and parking space before Yagi arrived. Our house is currently without water, electricity and internet," shared Xie, another Haikou local, mentioning that his apartment on the 17th floor was particularly vulnerable during such fierce storms.
"Our village is still closed off. Communication has been restored but the internet signal is not very stable. Yesterday was horrifying. Toppled trees were everywhere. We were so scared," a Wenchang resident named Feng relayed to CN.
There have been comparisons between Yagi and Rammasun, another devastating typhoon that struck Hainan in 2014, resulting in 46 fatalities.
"For a typhoon, Rammasun is like an 18-year-old boy, but Yagi is a 30-year-old man at his prime," Xiaopeng remarked.
Despite the severe ordeal, many said they felt better equipped this time around.
"In Wenchang, people used to build tiled houses so when Rammasun came, all houses collapsed. My village, Taoli Village, for example, was nearly flattened, including our house. After Rammasun, people started to shift to apartments or other buildings. Rammasun also taught us to be more vigilant like trimming trees and reinforcing buildings in advance, so this time the damage was significantly reduced," Feng elaborate to CN.
Xie from Haikou concurred, emphasizing their preparedness.
"Tiled houses cannot resist strong winds so a lot of the roofs were blown off the last time. This time, we had plans. A few months ago, the city started to trim trees. People were also sent to reinforce the sewage system to avoid waterlogging," he explained.
Preventative measures were taken throughout Guangdong and Hainan, where authorities dispatched teams to install iron doors and deploy sandbags ahead of Yagi’s arrival. Moreover, Guangdong mobilized 8,700 personnel to secure the reservoirs in advance.
Before the storm, Hainan also moved 35,000 fishing boats to safer locations.
Making landfall twice on Friday—first in Hainan and then in Guangdong—Yagi marked the 11th typhoon of 2024.
By 5 p.m. Saturday, authorities in Haikou had evacuated around 105,500 people, while over 167,800 trees were uprooted and 56,742 hectares of agricultural land adversely affected.
In Wenchang, more than 25,000 homes suffered damage and 792 communication base stations were rendered inoperable, with widespread power outages affecting 82.3 percent of the area.
Numerous regions in Haikou and Wenchang still lacked access to water and communication systems, with the populace continuing to suffer from the aftermath.
"The most urgent thing is for water, electricity and transportation to be restored as soon as possible. Life supplies are not a big problem in the short term. I think preventing high temperature and contagious diseases are more important than supplies this time," Feng told CN.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the aftermath of Yagi resulted in nine fatalities and 186 injuries, as reported by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Sunday morning.
Ian Smith for TROIB News
