HK MOPS UP AFTER MANGKHUT
Massive clean-up after devastating typhoon; death toll hits 65 in Philippines
HONG Kong began a massive clean-up yesterday after Typhoon Mangkhut raked the city, shredding trees and bringing damaging floods in a trail of destruction that left dozens dead in the Philippines and millions evacuated in southern China.
The death toll in the Philippines, where the north of the main island of Luzon was mauled by fierce winds and rain, reached 65. It was expected to rise further as frantic rescuers pulled bodies from a massive landslide in the mountain town of Itogon.
The landslide buried an emergency shelter which was being used by miners and their families.
Eleven bodies have been pulled from the rubble and up to 40 more may still be trapped. Relatives of the buried were among those digging with shovels and their bare hands in an increasingly desperate attempt to find survivors.
“We believe that those people there, maybe 99 per cent, are already dead,” said the town’s mayor Victorio Palangdan.
More than 155,000 people remain in evacuation centres in the Philippines two days after the typhoon struck, said national police spokesman Benigno Durana.
Farms across northern Luzon, which produces much of the nation’s rice and corn, were under muddy floodwater, their crops ruined just a month before harvest.
After tearing through Luzon and pummelling Hong Kong and Macau, the storm made landfall in mainland China on Sunday. It killed four in Guangdong province, including three hit by falling trees.
Authorities there said they had evacuated more than three million people and ordered tens of thousands of fishing boats back to port before the arrival of what Chinese media dubbed the “King of Storms”.
In the high-rise city of Hong Kong, the government described the damage as “severe and extensive” with more than 300 people injured in Mangkhut, which triggered the maximum “T10” typhoon alert.
The monumental task of cleaning up the city began as residents, some in suits and ties, struggled to get back to work on roads that remained blocked by felled trees, mud and debris.
Bus services were halted and commuters piled onto platforms trying to board infrequent trains after trees fell on overhead power lines.
Landslides and severe flooding affected some areas, with over 1,500 residents seeking refuge in temporary shelters overnight.