Vincent Yu/AP
Dark clouds hang low over Hong Kong’s Victoria Habour Sunday. Usagi, the year’s most powerful typhoon, had Hong Kong in its crossshairs Sunday after sweeping past the Philippines and Taiwan.
HONG KONG — The year’s most powerful typhoon slammed into southern China on Sunday evening, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, shutting down shipping and putting a nuclear power plant on alert after pummeling parts of the Philippines and Taiwan with heavy rains and fierce winds.
Typhoon Usagi veered away from Hong Kong at the last minute and made landfall northeast of the former British colony. Forecasters had warned earlier that it posed a “severe threat” to the southern Chinese city.
Usagi — Japanese for rabbit — was classified as a severe typhoon, packing sustained winds of 109 mph, with gusts of up to 132 mph.
Vincent Yu/AP
A tourist from mainland China braves strong wind near the waterfront in Hong Kong Sunday.
RELATED: SEE IT: TIDAL WAVE SLAMS CHINA COAST, OVER 30 INJURED
The storm was downgraded from a super typhoon on Saturday — with its sustained winds falling below 150 mph — as it passed through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan, likely sparing residents in both places from the most destructive winds near its eye.
In the Philippines, Usagi left at least two people dead and two others missing, while in Taiwan nine people were hurt by falling trees on Kinmen island off China’s coast.
TYRONE SIU/REUTERS
People react as waves splash on to the road during Typhoon Usagi in Hong Kong.
The typhoon landed near the city of Shanwei in the Chinese province of Guangdong, about 87 miles northeast of Hong Kong, and was moving west-northwest at 14 mph, the Hong Kong Observatory said. It was expected to skirt about 62 miles north of Hong Kong overnight.
RELATED: TYPHOON SOULIK WREAKS HAVOC ON TAIWAN
Ferry services between Hong Kong and nearby Macau and outlying islands were suspended as the observatory raised the No. 8 storm warning signal, the third highest on a five-point scale. It reported winds as strong as 42 mph and warned that a storm surge and heavy rains could cause flooding in low-lying areas.
BOBBY YIP/REUTERS
Passengers whose flights are cancelled in anticipation of typhoon Usagi, rest at Hong Kong International Airport.
Police in Shanwei ordered more than 8,000 fishing boats to return to port and more than 1,200 residents were taken to temporary shelters, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
The typhoon wreaked havoc on airport schedules in Hong Kong, nearby Macau and mainland China, upsetting travel plans for many passengers who were returning home at the end of the three-day mid-autumn festival long weekend.
RELATED: RECORD-BREAKING FLOODS IN THE PHILIPPINES KILL AT LEAST 8
Aaron Favila/AP
Vehicles cross a street in Manila in the Philippines on Sunday after it was flooded by Typhoon Usagi.
Hong Kong International Airport said 370 arriving and departing flights were canceled and another 64 delayed. Two of Hong Kong’s biggest airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair, canceled flights to and from the city’s airport starting at 6 p.m. Sunday, with plans to resume operations Monday if conditions permit.
Beijing-based Air China scrubbed 148 flights to and from Hong Kong, Macau and five nearby mainland cities. China Southern Airlines, based in Guangzhou, canceled all flights to and from Hong Kong and three mainland airports, Xinhua said.
Fujian province suspended shipping between mainland China and Taiwan, the news agency said.
Vincent Yu/AP
The typhoon has already pummeled parts of the Philippines and Taiwan, as well as other nearby nations.
RELATED: KILLER TYPHOON STRIKES BACK AT PHILIPPINES
Authorities in Guangdong initiated an emergency response plan for the Daya Bay nuclear power station northeast of Hong Kong as Usagi approached, ordering four of six reactors to operate at a reduced load, Xinhua said.
In Taiwan, more than 3,300 people were evacuated from flood-prone areas and mountainous regions. The storm also caused a landslide that buried a rail line on Taiwan’s southeast coast, but rail services were restored by Sunday morning.
Another landslide late Saturday in the southeastern hot springs resort village of Chihpen sent mud and rocks crashing through the ground floor of a resort spa, forcing the evacuation of frightened guests. The Chihpen River breached its levies upriver, turning the village’s main street into a rock-strewn stream, flooding homes and damaging vehicles.
In the Philippines, a 50-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman drowned when a passenger boat capsized in rough waters off northeastern Aurora province, the Office of Civil Defense said Saturday. Two other people were missing in the incident, while the remaining nine passengers and crew were rescued.
The typhoon set off landslides, flooded parts of six Philippine provinces and affected nearly 20,000 people, but disaster-response officials did not immediately report additional casualties.
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=14310
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
No comments:
Post a Comment