On the afternoon of September 6th, Super Typhoon “Mogje” successively made landfall in Wenchang, Hainan and Xuwu, Guangdong in China. Hainan urgently evacuated 418,275 people while Guangdong evacuated 574,511 people. In addition, there were 3,000 trucks stranded at Zhanjiang Port.
This year’s 11th typhoon, “Mogje,” made landfall in Wenchang, Hainan around 16:20 on the 6th, with maximum wind speeds near the center exceeding 17 levels, making it the strongest autumn typhoon to ever land in China. It is also the strongest typhoon to make landfall in China since Typhoon “Rammasun” in 2014.
Online videos show the astonishing power of Mogje, causing trees to collapse wherever it passed, roofs of buildings to be blown off, and even air conditioners to be blown away. Some people were seen risking riding electric bicycles only to be blown down, with both people and bikes rolling several meters; the top carriages of a Ferris wheel in an amusement park were blown around by the fierce winds.
A villager in Wenchang recorded a video showing a neighbor’s water tower swaying dangerously in the wind, only for it to disappear shortly after being mentioned by the villager due to the typhoon.
Another video shared by a netizen showed that half of the windows of a building in Wenchang were blown away by the typhoon, with the filmer adding that there was now no signal, water, or electricity.
“A hotel’s external wall in Haikou was blown away by Mogje,” a woman told “First Scene,” mentioning that the hotel’s elevators were unusable and water supply was tense.
According to the Hainan Meteorological Observatory, as of 17:00 on the 6th, 62 townships in 10 cities and counties in Wenchang, Haikou, Chengmai, Ding’an, Tunchang, Changjiang, Qionghai, Wanning, Lingao, and Danzhou had experienced gusts of wind of level 10 or above, with the highest reaching level 18 (66.7 meters/second) in Longlou Town, Wenchang.
As reported by China Weather Net, from 5:00 on the 6th to 5:00 on the 7th, rainfall in southern areas such as Ding’an, Wenchang, and Haikou in Hainan exceeded 250 millimeters, with individual areas in Haikou, Ledong, and Wenchang having rainfall exceeding 400 millimeters, breaking the local September single-day rainfall record in Wenchang.
After Mogje swept through, the streets of Hainan were in disarray. A Hainan netizen named “Guilin Wansheng Recycling”, said: “Seawater backflow, foul smell in the air, garbage everywhere! Fish and shrimp farms are now just filled with seawater! There are many more losses!”
Currently, all 89 A-grade tourist attractions in Hainan have been closed, and temporary traffic control measures have been implemented on roads, bridges, and tunnels throughout the province. Airports in Haikou, Sanya, and Qionghai have canceled all flights. As of 9:00 am on September 6th, Hainan had evacuated 418,275 people.
The typhoon also affected areas in Guangdong. Due to the influence of Mogje, the coastal winds in Xuwu, Guangdong reached about level 9, with waves exceeding 6 meters in height. The waves caused 2-ton wave blocks to crash onto the seawall directly; many branches in Xuwu County were broken and scattered disorderly on the roads. A Guangdong netizen named “Jingjing Yeyey” said: “Perhaps not a single eucalyptus tree is left at home, the losses are substantial anyway.”
Moreover, the typhoon caused the suspension of all operations at Xuwu Xin Port, Haian Xin Port, and Beigang Railway in Zhanjiang, Guangdong. Xu Yuan, a netizen who works in a parking lot near Xuwu Port in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, posted videos on his social platform for three consecutive days. According to Xu Yuan’s videos, trucks were lined up along the road. Public data showed that as of 7:00 pm on September 5th, approximately 3,000 trucks and 4,500 people were stranded, with operations expected to be suspended until the 8th. By 12:00 on the 6th, Guangdong province had urgently relocated 574,511 people.
The Hainan Provincial Meteorological Department predicts that “Mogje” will move into the Beibu Gulf on the morning of the 7th, and in the afternoon of the 7th, it will make landfall again along the coastal areas from Fangchenggang, Guangxi to northern Vietnam. Due to its impact, for the next two to three days, there will still be extremely severe windy and rainy weather in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and other regions, with some local rainfall being quite extreme.