On August 24 at 18:00, the 12-level winds of Typhoon “Swordfish” reached Sanya, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to the city. After the typhoon’s rampage, the streets of Sanya were left in a mess, with many large trees blown down, vehicles damaged, and even the entrance of a luxury hotel blown away.
According to “Sanya Announcement,” Typhoon “Swordfish”, the 13th typhoon of the year (intense typhoon level), is the strongest typhoon to impact Sanya in recorded meteorological history. Due to the influence of “Swordfish”, from 8:00 on the 24th to 8:00 on the 25th, Sanya experienced severe windy and rainy weather, with widespread heavy rain throughout the city. The largest accumulated rainfall occurred in Qingtian Village, Haitang District, reaching 389.2mm, with 219.4mm in the urban area. Additionally, coastal areas experienced gusts of 14-16 levels, with the strongest gust recorded at level 16 (55.4m/s) at the Haitang District Haohai Village Pier.
Videos circulating online showed the effects of the typhoon in Sanya, with strong winds and heavy rain, waves crashing ashore. Many cars were submerged in water, windows of residential buildings shattered by strong winds, rain pouring in, soaking furniture and appliances. Large trees were toppled, narrowly missing a woman who was almost struck.
According to China Weather Network, on the morning of the 25th, many roads were blocked by fallen trees, with large trunks lying across the road, hindering traffic. Road flooding was also severe, with rainwater flowing like swift rivers.
Videos posted by netizens showed cars crushed by fallen trees, cars overturned by the wind, with their front end down and alarms blaring. Some netizens mentioned that a water tower was blown away, luckily avoiding any cars being smashed.
On August 25, an employee of a luxury hotel in Haitang District, Sanya, told “Extreme News” that due to the strong winds of the typhoon, the hotel’s entrance was blown off, some windows shattered, but fortunately, staff noticed in time, and there were no casualties.
As reported by “Beijing News”, disruptions in roads, water supply, power, and communication were observed to varying degrees in Sanya, Ledong, Lingshui, Wanning, Baoting, Wuzhishan, and other cities and counties. In Sanya, over 20,000 trees were toppled or leaning; a submerged neighborhood had water levels of approximately 70 cm; water supply was halted in 7 administrative villages (communities), affecting over 7,000 households, with more than 5,000 households still without water.
Moreover, Ledong County experienced water outages in 13 villages, with a hospital basement flooding. Lingshui County had over 20,000 fallen trees, with 658 communication stations out of service, affecting 6,448 fixed-line users and 4,370 mobile users.
As of 9:00 on August 25, a total of 102,500 people in Hainan Province were affected by the disaster.