At least 39 people have died and nine remain missing after torrential rain from Tropical Storm Maysak triggered severe flooding and a reservoir collapse in China’s southern Guangxi region, local officials said on Thursday. The vice mayor of Nanning, Ding Wei, told a press conference that 26 of the deaths were linked to the breach of the Liulan reservoir, while a second, smaller dam near the town of Gantang also failed. More than 130,000 residents have been evacuated, and over 8,000 rescue workers using 5,700 boats and drones are searching inundated communities, according to Chinese state media.

As recovery efforts continued, Super Typhoon Bavi churned across the western Pacific towards Taiwan and eastern China. Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said the storm, with a gale-radius of 380 kilometres, is the largest by size to approach the island since at least 1987, and issued its first “mega wave” warning for coastal areas. Authorities in northern Taiwan and Hualien county ordered school and office closures, while Japan’s meteorological agency urged residents of Okinawa’s Sakishima Islands to remain on high alert for violent winds, landslides and storm surges. China’s National Meteorological Centre forecast Bavi would make landfall in Fujian province on Saturday evening.

The flooding in Guangxi also caused hundreds of venomous snakes to escape from a commercial breeding farm in Hengzhou city. Local officials said between 800 and 900 reptiles, including cobras, were washed into surrounding villages, and hospitals reported treating multiple snakebite victims. Chinese media cited a local hospital as saying one snakebite patient had died, though the facility did not publicly confirm the fatality. At Guigang Zoo, three lions drowned and more than 100 animals, among them zebras and alpacas, escaped after enclosures were damaged, the zoo said in a statement.

China’s emergency management apparatus is confronting simultaneous disasters. A landslide in Gansu province killed 21 people earlier this week, and thunderstorms in Hubei left 11 dead and over 330 injured, according to state media. In Guangxi, floodwaters are receding but thick mud still covers streets, and electricity has been restored to nearly 60,000 homes. The death toll from the flooding remains provisional as search operations continue.