Southern Chinese island province braces for powerful Typhoon Yagi after it sweeps by Hong Kong
Southern Chinese island province braces for powerful Typhoon Yagi after it sweeps by Hong Kong
HONG KONG (AP) — A powerful typhoon swept south of Hong Kong and was moving toward a Chinese island province where it was expected to make landfall Friday, forcing many aspects of life in the region to a halt.
Trading on the stock market, bank services and schools were halted in Hong Kong after the city’s weather authority raised a No. 8 typhoon signal for Typhoon Yagi, the third-highest warning under the city’s weather system.
Yagi, with maximum sustained winds of 230 kilometers (142 miles) per hour near its center, forced more than 250 people to seek refuge at temporary government shelters and led to cancellations of more than 100 flights in the city. Five people were injured and treated at hospitals. Heavy rain and strong winds felled dozens of trees.
Now the tropical holiday island of Hainan, in southern China, is bracing for the storm. The Hainan province’s meteorological service expects Yagi — now packing winds of up to 245 km (152 miles) per hour — to make landfall in the province’s Wenchang city soon. It will then sweep toward other parts of the island before moving to the Beibu Gulf, it said.
Nearly 420,000 residents have been relocated in the province. People built sandbag barriers outside buildings to guard against possible floods and reinforced their windows with tape on Thursday, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
State media said classes, work, transportation and businesses had been suspended in parts of the province as early as Wednesday evening. Some tourist attractions were closed and all flights at three airports on the island were expected to be grounded on Friday.
State broadcaster CCTV said Qinzhou in Guangxi region also issued a top emergency response alert to guard against the typhoon. It said Yagi is expected to make another landfall somewhere between the region’s Fangchenggang city and the coastal area of northern Vietnam on Saturday afternoon.
Yagi was still a tropical storm when it blew out of the northwestern Philippines into the South China Sea on Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people dead and 17 others missing, mostly in landslides and widespread flooding, and affecting more than 2 million people in northern and central provinces.
More than 47,600 people were displaced from their homes in Philippine provinces, and classes, work, inter-island ferry services and domestic flights were disrupted for days, including in the densely populated capital region, metropolitan Manila.
___
Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
By KANIS LEUNG
Associated Press
