South China battered by destructive typhoon
Mangkhut makes landfall, residents forced to stay shuttered in homes
Typhoon Mangkhut barreled through the Pearl River Delta on Sunday, leaving a trail of damage, flooding and injuries in its wake and forcing the closure of schools, markets and most public services across the region.
After claiming at least 29 lives in the Philippines, the destructive storm made landfall at 5 pm on Sunday on the coast of Jiangmen in western Guangdong province, packing winds of up to 162 kilometers per hour, according to the provincial meteorological station.
Hong Kong Observatory kept its highest No 10 Hurricane Signal in effect for 10 hours from morning to evening on Sunday.
In the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, intense winds and fierce rains left more than 280 people injured, and over 1,200 people sought refuge in temporary government shelters, as of 6 pm.
According to the Guangdong Meteorological Observatory, Mangkhut will continue to generate heavy rains and bring strong winds to the province until Thursday.
Xu Yuan, associate professor at the Department of Geography and Resource Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the warm seawater in the South China Sea helped Mangkhut maintain its strength after an earlier landfall in the Philippines.
In Guangdong province, more than 2.52 million people were relocated, and over 48,000 fishing boats were called back to ports.
Police, firefighters and other members of government departments worked overnight to clean and repair damaged public facilities.
In the wake of the typhoon, 18 major highways across Guangdong were closed from Sunday noon.
Thousands of flights were canceled and all high-speed rail services were suspended throughout the day.
Limited public transport and other public services such as hospitals will resume gradually on Monday.
Work was suspended at more than 29,000 construction sites and 632 tourist spots were closed in the province.
The Guangdong Civil Affairs Department opened more than 3,500 emergency shelters for people in need amid the natural disaster.
Military forces in Guang- dong were sent to coastal cities, and prepared about 1,000 lifeboats and disaster relief goods for emergency rescue.
Both the governments of Hong Kong and Macao SARs announced suspension of all classes on Monday to ensure the safety of students and clean community facilities.
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said over social media that though people could take heart that the worst is over, they should not let their guard down.