Hong Kong mops up after typhoon
MANGKHUT: FINANCIAL HUB NORMAL AFTER ‘KING OF STORMS’ No China fatalities reported, but death toll in Philippines still climbing.
The financial hub of Hong Kong began clearing up yesterday after being battered by one of the strongest typhoons in years, with financial markets and offices operating as normal.
Super typhoon Mangkhut, with hurricane-force winds well over 200km/h, had barrelled past the northern tip of the Philippines, killing at least 50 people. It then skirted south of Hong Kong and the neighbouring gambling hub of Macau, before making landfall in China.
Parts of Hong Kong and Macau were severely flooded, though there were no immediate reports of fatalities. China Central Television, the state broadcaster, said four people had been killed in Guangdong, China’s most populous province of more than 100 million residents.
The state broadcaster also said flood warnings had been issued for 38 rivers in the neighbouring region of Guangxi, while 12 coastal monitoring stations reported their biggest-ever waves. It also said more than 13 300 hectares of farmland had been damaged.
As many as 2.45 million people in Guangdong province had been relocated on Sunday night, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The China Meteorological Administration said the typhoon, dubbed “King of Storms”, swept west to Guangxi province and weakened to a “tropical storm”. The storm was set to hit the regions of Guizhou, Chongqing and Yunnan yesterday.
The meteorological administration said Mangkhut was one of the 10 biggest storms to hit southeast China since 1949.
Across Hong Kong, authorities strived to clear roads of debris, including toppled trees and bamboo scaffolding. Some buildings, including the One Harbourfront office tower, had many windows smashed after a day in which some of the city’s skyscrapers had swayed with the ferocious gusts.
“Yesterday’s storm was very strong. Even for a person of my weight, I was about to be blown down by the wind which made me very scared,” said a 70-year-old resident surnamed Fung.
Stock and financial markets opened as normal yesterday in Hong Kong and the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Some transport services remained suspended, though flights in the region were slowly resuming after a shutdown on Sunday.
In Macau, badly hit by a super typhoon last year, authorities ordered casinos to close as the storm approached.
Casinos were operational again early yesterday. –