Typhoon sweeps through gambling hub
AT least eight people have died and many are still missing after one of the strongest typhoons on record barrelled into the southern Chinese territory of Macau, wiping out power and water in large pockets of the world’s biggest gambling hub.
Macau’s government broadcaster TDM said Typhoon Hato, a maximum category 10 storm, was the strongest since 1968.
“The city looks like it was just in a war,” a civil servant said yesterday.
On Wednesday Hato battered the financial hub of Hong Kong, uproot- ing trees, flooding streets, forcing hundreds of flights to be cancelled and halting financial trading.
There were reports of 34 people injured in Hong Kong, which had not been hit by a category 10 typhoon for five years.
Hato’s path of destruction continued to the former Portuguese colony of Macau, across the Pearl River estuary and China’s Guangdong Province.
Winds of more than 200kmh smashed into apartments across Macau, breaking large doors and sending sheets of glass flying.
Macau’s water system pumps were severely damaged and power was cut to more than half Macau, home to around 600,000 people.
While most of the large casinos were operating as normal, many relied on back-up power generators.
Severe flooding overwhelmed the teeming enclave, which is in the process of building new infrastructure, such as a light rail, to cope with a surge in visitors.
Winds near Hato’s centre were recorded at 155 kmh as it moved across Guangdong towards Hainan island.