Typhoon Hato kills three, wreaks havoc in south China

Three people died in the gambling hub of Macau, while neighbouring Hong Kong and Guangdong province were slammed by the category 10 storm.

A man clings to a lamp post as Typhoon Hato tears into Hong Kong, China, August 23, 2017.
Reuters

A man clings to a lamp post as Typhoon Hato tears into Hong Kong, China, August 23, 2017.

Typhoon Hato, a maximum category 10 storm, slammed into Hong Kong on Wednesday lashing the Asian financial hub with wind and rain that uprooted trees and forced most businesses to close, while in some places big waves flooded seaside streets.

There were reports of 34 people injured in Hong Kong while in the city of Macau, across the Pearl River estuary, three people were killed, authorities there said.

In Hong Kong, more than 450 flights were cancelled, financial markets suspended and schools closed as Hato bore down, the first category 10 storm to hit the city since 2012.

"I've never seen one like this," Garrett Quigley, a longtime resident of Lantau island to the west of the city, said of the storm.

"Cars are half submerged and roads are impassable with flooding and huge trees down. It's crazy."

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Hato churned up Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour and triggered large swells and big waves on some of the city's most popular beaches, with serious flooding in low-lying areas.

Many skyscrapers in the heart of Hong Kong were empty and dark as office workers stayed at home.

Construction cranes swayed at the tops of skyscrapers, windows imploded and nearly 200 trees were uprooted, while some people used canoes to venture out into flooded streets.

In residential districts like Heng Fa Chuen on densely populated Hong Kong island, waves smashed against the sides of oceanfront buildings and surged over a promenade, swamping roads and vehicles parked nearby.

The storm also caused a power blackout across most of the gambling hub of Macau for about two hours, residents said, with disruption to mobile phone and internet networks.

The former Portuguese colony's casinos, however, had backup power, casino executives said.

The storm also made landfall in China's Guangdong province, in Zhuhai city adjacent to Macau, China's Xinhua state news agency reported.

Numerous flights and trains were cancelled in Guangdong province, with Shenzhen's International Airport particularly badly hit.

Thousands of residents along the Chinese coast were evacuated and fishing vessels were called back to port.

Maximum winds near Hato's centre were recorded at a destructive 155 kilometres per hour (95 mph).

The city's flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific, and Hong Kong Airlines said the majority of their flights to and from Hong Kong between 2200 GMT Tuesday and 0900 GMT Wednesday were cancelled.

Other transport services, including ferries to the gaming hub of Macau and outlying islands in Hong Kong, were suspended.

Authorities downgraded the storm to a category eight by mid-afternoon.

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