Typhoon has China, Hong Kong on edge
Skycrapers sway as Mangkhut makes landfall in China
Hong Kong, Sept. 16: Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into mainland China late Sunday after leaving a trail of destruction in Hong Kong and Macau after killing at least 59 people in the northern Philippines.
The world’s biggest storm this year felled trees and sent skyscrapers swaying in high-rise Hong Kong, injuring more than 200 people there before making landfall on the coast of Jiangmen city, in southern China's Guangdong province.
Provincial authorities said they evacuated a total of 2.37 million people and ordered tens of thousands of fishing boats back to port before the arrival of what Chinese media has dubbed the “King of Storms”.
State-run CCTV reported the typhoon had killed two in Guangdong.
Mangkhut left large expanses in the north of the main Philippine island of Luzon underwater as fierce winds tore trees from the ground and rain unleashed dozens of landslides.
Hong Kong weather authorities issued their maximum alert for the storm, which hit the city with gusts of more than 230 kilometres per hour and left 213 people injured, according to government figures.
As the storm passed south of Hong Kong, trees were snapped and roads blocked, while some windows in tower blocks were smashed and skyscrapers swayed, as they are designed to do in intense gales.