4 killed in Guangdong as Mangkhut wreaks havoc

FOUR people were confirmed dead, and 542 million yuan (US$79 million) of insurance claims had been filed as of yesterday afternoon in Guangdong as Super Typhoon Mangkhut ravaged the southern Chinese province.

Mangkhut landed at 5pm on Sunday on the coast of Jiangmen City in Guangdong, packing winds of up to 162 kilometers per hour, according to the provincial meteorological station.

Three people were killed by falling trees in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, while another person died from collapsing construction materials in the city of Dongguan, Guangdong’s disaster relief authorities revealed.

As of 11pm on Sunday, more than 3.11 million people had been relocated, and about 49,000 fishing boats called back to port in the province.

According to the Guangdong insurance regulatory commission, more than 30,000 insurance claims have been received so far, including nearly 27,000 claims for vehicle damages with a combined loss of 233 million yuan, and another 1,100 claims reporting agricultural destruction worth 105 million yuan.

Mangkhut also caused big losses in the cities of Yangjiang and Maoming, which could yield a compensation totalling about 75 million yuan. The amount of compensation in other typhoon-affected areas is yet to be determined.

The administration of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge dispatched 83 employees to patrol the span and supporting facilities. The bridge withstood the test of the super typhoon, which had a maximum wind speed of 55 meters per second, according to on-site supervision data.

The National Meteorological Center said Mangkhut entered the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, moving northwest-ward at a speed of 20kph yesterday morning.

In Guangxi, the lives of about 69,400 people were affected, and about 45,000 people have been relocated, according to the regional civil affairs bureau.

The local hydrological and water resources bureau said 12 rivers in the region are running over the alert levels due to heavy downpours brought by the typhoon and are expected to rise even higher, leading to possible floods in the next 24 hours.

Nuclear power plants run by China General Nuclear Power Corp in Guangdong and Guangxi were not affected by the typhoon, the corporation said late on Sunday.

The government of southwestern Yunnan Province has initiated emergency response and ordered weather, civil affairs and mining safety departments to take precautions against the typhoon.

The weather bureau in eastern Shandong Province also forecast widespread rainfall until tomorrow night.