China Daily Global Edition (USA)
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.
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 GuangAccording 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.
Super Typhoon Mangkhut brought air, rail and road traffic to a halt in Guangdong province, hub of the southern China region, on Sunday.
Mangkhut, which first hit Taishan, a coastal city in western Guangdong at 5 pm, is the 22nd typhoon formed on the northwestern Pacific Ocean this year.
According to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, all departing and arriving flights were canceled from noon on Sunday until 8 am Monday, affecting thousands of passengers.
All high-speed trains were also canceled on Sunday, Guangzhou Railway Group said.
Ferry services across the Qiongzhou Strait and in major coastal cities have also been canceled, according to Guangdong’s Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
Meanwhile, more than 240 access roads along the province’s expressway network were closed to prevent accidents caused by the weather, traffic police said.
An offshore crude oil engineering vessel that dragged anchor in the heavy storm accompanying Mangkhut was finally pulled into harbor at Huizhou, Guangdong, around 2:30 pm on Sunday, sources at the Guangdong Marine Rescue Center said.
The center sent three highpowered tugboats to the scene and organized the rescue after it was reported that the 40,000-metric-ton vessel, with 73 sailors aboard, had lost anchor around 11:40 on Sunday morning.
The captain of the vessel said all the sailors aboard were safe and that the vessel was intact when it returned to the harbor.
At Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines used special ropes to tie down their aircraft to prevent them from being blown away, sources at the airport said.
More than 400 flights at two airports in Hainan province were also canceled on Sunday morning as Mangkhut approached.
Hainan, which lies south of Guangdong, has been affected by strong winds and heavy downpours.
All airlines informed passengers of typhoon-affected flight cancellations in advance, according to airport authorities in Haikou and Sanya. So far, no passengers have been stranded at airports.
Wu Zhifang, chief forecaster at the Guangdong Meteorological Bureau, said Mangkhut is believed to be among the five strongest typhoons to have battered Guangdong since 1961.
Liu Yuemei said she has never seen such a raging storm before.
“I was soaked through when I returned home from shopping on Sunday morning,” said the 48-year-old, who lives in Guangzhou’s Tianhe district.
To minimize causalities and economic losses, the Guangdong government urged preparation in advance of Mangkhut.
“No one should be trusting to luck, as Mangkhut is extremely powerful,” said an official with Guangdong’s Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters who did not want to be named.
By 6 pm on Sunday, more than 2.53 million residents living in the low-lying areas of coastal cities had been evacuated to safety, while 18,795 shelters had been made available for people in need.
Meanwhile, 640 scenic spots and 29,762 construction sites across the province have been closed, and some 48,661 fishing boats have returned to harbor.