Typhoon leaves 12 dead in HK, Macau
MACAU (AFP) — The death toll from Typhoon Hato rose to 12 yesterday after a storm that left a trail of destruction across southern China and battered Hong Kong’s skyscrapers.
Eight died in the worst-hit gambling hub of Macau, where local media showed cars underwater and people swimming along what are normally streets. The enclave’s famed mega-casinos were running on backup generators.
One man was killed after being injured by a wall that blew down, another fell from a fourth floor terrace and another was hit by a truck.
The Macau government said a body was found in an indoor carpark early yesterday, but details on the other victims there were not immediately available.
The enclave’s sprawling Venetian casino resort had been on back-up power Wednesday and without air conditioning or proper lighting, according to one source, while residents took to social media to complain about city-wide power and mobile phone network outages.
A member of staff at the Grand Lisboa Hotel in central Macau told AFP yesterday that it was still without electricity following the typhoon.
“There is no water and no electricity,” the person said, adding that both the restaurant and casino were closed.
Footage showed people holding plastic buckets queuing on the sidewalks to collect drinking water.
Firefighters in the former Portuguese territory have been carrying out rescue work, while a cleanup operation is under way with government departments clearing falling trees and reopening major roads.
Ferry services between Macau and neighboring Hong Kong resumed yesterday morning but passengers said they experienced delays.
In Hong Kong, Hato — whose name is Japanese for “pigeon” — sparked the most severe Typhoon 10 warning, only the third time a storm of this power has pounded the financial hub in the past 20 years.
More than 120 were injured as the city was lashed with hurricane winds and pounding rain. One 83-year-old man earlier thought to be a victim of the weather had committed suicide during the typhoon.
No Filipino was killed or injured in the typhoon that hit Hong Kong and Macau, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.
According to the DFA, there are more than 211,000 Filipinos living and working in Hong Kong and almost 30,000 in Macau.
The DFA said it continue to monitor the situation in Hong Kong and Macau. — Pia Lee-Brago