Typhoon Hagupit wreaks havoc in south China
24/9/2008 17:30
Typhoon Hagupit, packing torrential rain and hurricane force winds, forced
the closure of schools in at least two south China cities, halted flights and
left many urban streets deserted after making landfall in Guangdong Province
early today.
The 14th strong typhoon of the year landed in Dianbai County in
the city of Maoming at 6:45 a.m. with winds of more than 200 km per hour in its
eye, the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Bureau said.
Strong gales
uprooted many trees and billboards in Maoming when the storm landed. City
authorities said one fishing boat sank off Dianbai County, but no casualties
were reported.
The worst typhoon to hit Guangdong in more than a decade
closed all schools and kindergartens in the coastal city of Zhanjiang, where
gales and rain left most streets deserted even in the morning rush
hour.
"Hagupit has brought strong gales sweeping all the nine counties and
districts in Zhanjiang at 110 km per hour," said Peng Wenzhen, deputy chief of
the city's water resources bureau.
Many roadside stores and restaurants
covered their gates and windows with wood or steel bars overnight.
The high
wind destroyed a gas station along the Zhanjiang section of State Highway 325
and a factory under construction. The local government said no casualties were
reported in either accident.
But fallen trees disrupted traffic on the state
highway this morning and local farmers had huge losses as the gales destroyed
their banana trees on either side of the highway.
Meanwhile, heavy rain since
last night has swollen five of the city's 800 reservoirs. "We have sluiced water
from the five reservoirs and are watching closely as the rainstorm persists,"
said Peng.
Hagupit has triggered a once-in-a-century storm tide -- a high
flood period in which water levels can rise to more than 5 meters above the
normal tide -- in several coastal cities including Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan,
Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Yangjiang.
The water level at Dashi hydrological station
in the provincial capital Guangzhou was 2.73 meters this morning, a 100-year
record, and it showed no sign of subsiding by midday.
Li Jianji, an expert
with the provincial astronomical society, said the storm tide was likely to last
for a day.
The provincial meteorological bureau said the typhoon was trailing
off while moving northwest at 25 km per hour. But rainstorms were expected to
continue through tomorrow.
The province recalled more than 50,000 vessels
with almost 200,000 fishermen and crew members yesterday.
A team of 130
police officers struggled four hours early today to save 50 villagers who were
stranded by floods that overflowed a 200-meter embankment in Zhuhai.
Total
rain in Zhuhai's Doumen town, one of the worst-hit towns by the storm, reached
194.6 mm in the 22 hours ending at 10 am today, the local meteorological bureau
said.
Strong gales and heavy rain also wreaked havoc in the southernmost
island province of Hainan, and the provincial capital Haikou issued a notice
late yesterday, ordering all schools and kindergartens to be closed today.
As
of 8 am today, 33 flights had been canceled at Meilan Airport in Haikou,
affecting nearly 2,700 passengers. The airport remained closed at 10 a.m.
The
airport in Shenzhen also canceled most domestic flights after 7 pm yesterday and
encouraged passengers to postpone or cancel their trips.
In the adjacent
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, local governments were keeping close watch for
secondary disasters.
But Hagupit's landfall in Guangdong seemingly eased the
rain in the southeastern Fujian Province, meteorologists said.
Affected by
the typhoon, most parts of the province were drenched by heavy rain until early
today, with the maximum precipitation hitting 89 mm in the 22 hours ending at 6
am in some coastal counties.
The torrential rain weakened to a drizzle in
most cities this morning and the provincial capital Fuzhou has cleared
up.
Hagupit is the second typhoon in a week to affect Taiwan, Fujian and
Guangdong, after typhoon Sinlaku lashed the region last week.
Xinhua
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