On the afternoon of September 6, Typhoon “Mojie” made landfall in the coastal areas of Wengtian Town, Wenchang City, Hainan Province, causing enormous losses to the local area. According to official preliminary statistics, this super typhoon swept away 32.7 billion yuan from Wenchang City, equivalent to 86% of the city’s annual gross domestic product.
On the evening of September 7, the Hainan Provincial Emergency Command for Typhoon “Mojie” announced in a press conference that the typhoon had caused a total economic loss of 32.7 billion yuan in Wenchang. As of 3 p.m. on the 7th, Typhoon “Mojie” had affected 526,100 people in 19 cities and counties in Hainan Province, resulting in 4 deaths and 95 injuries.
According to the statistics of the Wenchang Municipal Bureau of Statistics, the GDP of Wenchang City in 2023 reached 379.86 billion yuan, which is equivalent to 86% of the GDP blown away by “Mojie” in Wenchang in one year.
Wenchang’s Deputy Mayor Wei Bo stated during the meeting that due to the typhoon making landfall in Wenchang, all 17 towns in the city were directly hit, with extensive damage to various infrastructure and significant impacts on people’s production and daily lives.
Preliminary statistics show that over 25,000 houses in Wenchang were damaged, nearly one-third of the roads were blocked by fallen trees making them impassable, 139 sections of the 10KV power lines were blacked out, accounting for about 65%, 792 communication base stations were damaged, with a power outage rate of 82.3%. Eight out of eleven water plants in the city ceased operation due to power outages, and approximately 270,000 mu of crops were affected, with around 160,000 mu experiencing complete crop failure. The affected area of forest was about 48,100 hectares, accounting for 46%.
Fan Shaoli, director of the Hainan Provincial Emergency Management Department, stated that based on the severe damage suffered by key infrastructure, agriculture, and service industries, the economic losses caused by “Mojie” far exceed the super typhoon “Weimaksen” that made landfall in the same location in July 2014.
Apart from Wenchang, Haikou also suffered significant direct economic losses, amounting to a staggering 26.324 billion yuan.
“Moji” affected 1,227,000 people in three provinces of Hainan, Guangdong, and Guangxi, with Hainan experiencing particularly severe disaster.