Typhoon Kajiki Unleashes Fury on Sanya, China, Leaving a Trail of Destruction

SANYA, CHINA – August 24, 2025 – Typhoon Kajiki, a formidable and relentless force of nature, made a devastating landfall near Sanya on China’s southern Hainan Island today, unleashing a torrent of wind and rain that has brought the vibrant tourist city to a standstill. The Category 3 storm, with sustained winds peaking at 185 kilometers per hour (115 miles per hour) before weakening slightly on approach, has plunged vast areas into darkness and forced the urgent evacuation of tens of thousands of residents and tourists.

Hours before Kajiki’s eyewall scraped the coast, authorities had issued the highest level of typhoon alert, mobilizing emergency response teams and converting schools and public buildings into temporary shelters.

Despite these preventative measures, the sheer power of the typhoon has proven overwhelming for much of the infrastructure. Roads are now impassable, littered with downed trees and power lines, while floodwaters have inundated low-lying districts, turning streets into raging rivers.

Eyewitness accounts from those who sheltered through the storm speak of a terrifying experience.

“It sounded like a train coming through our building,” recounted Li Wei, a hotel manager who rode out the storm in a reinforced emergency bunker. “The windows were rattling violently, and the rain was so heavy you couldn’t see anything beyond a few feet. We’ve never seen anything like this in Sanya.”

Emergency services are struggling to assess the full extent of the damage as the storm slowly moves inland, though initial reports indicate widespread power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

Communication lines are also intermittently down, making coordination difficult. Efforts are now focused on search and rescue operations, with concerns growing for those in more remote coastal villages that may have borne the brunt of Kajiki’s initial impact.

The economic fallout for Sanya, a city heavily reliant on tourism, is expected to be significant.

Airports and ports remain closed, stranding thousands of travelers and halting all shipping. The cleanup and recovery efforts are anticipated to be extensive, with local officials warning it could take weeks, if not months, for the city to fully rebound. The central government has pledged immediate support and resources, emphasizing the urgency of restoring normalcy and providing aid to those most affected by Typhoon Kajiki’s destructive passage.