MANGKHUT MAKES LANDFALL IN CHINA AS DEATH TOLL IN PHILIPPINES RISES
▶ The ‘King of Storms’ leaves a trail of destruction in Hong Kong and Macau and presses on to the mainland
Typhoon Mangkhut, the world’s biggest storm this year, hit mainland China yesterday, forcing millions of people to flee their homes.
The storm killed dozens in the Philippines and later injured hundreds as it moved across Hong Kong.
The super typhoon left at least 64 people dead in the Philippines and dozens more feared dead in a landslide.
It 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 moved 2.37 million people and ordered tens of thousands of fishing boats to port before the arrival of what Chinese media called the “King of Storms”.
Mangkhut left large expanses in the north of the main Philippine island of Luzon under water 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 an hour and left 213 people injured, according to government figures.
As the storm passed south of Hong Kong, trees were snapped in half and roads blocked, while some windows in tower blocks were smashed and skyscrapers swayed, as they are designed to do in intense winds.
The Philippines was just beginning to count the cost of the typhoon that hit northern Luzon on Saturday.
The death toll jumped to 59 yesterday evening, police said, as more landslide victims were discovered.
Authorities said they would continue efforts in the morning to dig out a group of about two dozen miners who are feared dead after their bunkhouse was hit by a landslide near the northern city of Baguio.
In the UAE, worried Filipino expatriates have been left in limbo after being unable to contact their families back home as Typhoon Mangkhut leaves behind a deadly trail of destruction in the country.
Expatriates have suffered a communications blackout after the super typhoon tore through the country’s infrastructure, leaving them with an anxious wait for news.
Zarina Dalati, a Filipina who works in Dubai, has family living in the north of the Philippines, which was affected by the disaster.
“The lines are disconnected, and I haven’t been able to reach my family,” Ms Dalati told The National.
“My parents were in the north of the Philippines but they are in Manila now.
“The typhoon was there, and I can see pictures, but not reach them on the phone.”
An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, often killing hundreds of people.
The latest victims were mostly people who died in landslides, including a family of four. In addition to those killed in the Philippines, a woman was swept out to sea in Taiwan.
In Hong Kong, waters surged in Victoria Harbour and coastal fishing villages, from which hundreds of residents were taken to storm shelters.
Some roads were waist deep in water with parts of the city cut off by floods and fallen trees. In the fishig village of Tai O, where many people live in stilt houses built over the sea, some tried to bail out their inundated homes.
The government warned people to stay indoors but some ventured out, heading to the coast to take photos.
Almost all flights in and out of Hong Kong were cancelled. Schools in the city will be shut today.
In the neighbouring gambling enclave of Macau, all 42 casinos shut down for the first time in its history.
As the storm moved past Macau to the south, streets became submerged under water gushing in from the harbour.
Emergency workers navigated the roads on jet-skis and in dinghies, rescuing trapped residents. The government and casinos are taking extra precautions after Macau was battered by Typhoon Hato last year, which left 12 dead.