A "super typhoon" regained strength and headed for southern China today after wreaking havoc across the northern Philippines, destroying thousands of homes and killing at least 15 people.
Chinese ports recalled vessels as Typhoon Megi looked set to make landfall on Saturday east of Hong Kong, one of the most crowded cities on Earth and long used to cyclonic storms which threaten between May and September, many after hitting the Philippines.
The Hong Kong observatory raised its standby tropical cyclone alert as Megi moved to within 800kms of the financial hub.
The lives of more than 256,000 people were disrupted by Typhoon Megi, which isolated coastal and mountain areas in the rice-producing northern Philippines, said Noel Lopez, provincial administrator of Isabela province. Many had been evacuated in the path of the storm.
Zambales in the northwestern part of Luzon was declared a state of calamity due to flooding while over 200,000 tonnes of rice crops were destroyed in the storm.
"This is the worst typhoon to hit our province in nearly 20 years," Mr Lopez told Reuters, adding that 80 per cent of houses in four coastal towns had been damaged or destroyed. "We're thankful to the Lord because there was minimal losses in terms of lives."
Oil platforms in the eastern part of the South China Sea were evacuated on Wednesday, a source said.
Hong Kong's Cable Television said a Taiwan vessel had sunk in the storm and at least one sailor died.
About 2,500 fishing boasts in Haikou, the capital of the Chinese resort island province of Hainan, had returned to harbour yesterday, and the city of Sanya was taking down billboards, the China Daily said, to prevent injuries. Trains from the island had been halted.
Megi had winds in excess of 250kph when it hit Isabela province on Monday. It lost strength overland, only to pick up energy again from the warm sea waters west of the Philippines.
Reuters