CHINA:THREE PEOPLE died and two were missing as Typhoon Hagupit made landfall in south China's Guangdong Province early yesterday. Authorities evacuated more than 100,000 people before the tempest, which killed at least eight people in the Philippines earlier this week.
Meteorologists said it was the worst typhoon to hit southern China in nearly a decade. Nearly five million people in the southern cities of Maoming, Yangjiang, Zhuhai and Jiangmen were affected by the typhoon, and 7,915 houses collapsed.
The winds at the eye of the typhoon hit nearly 200km/h. Hagupit triggered a once-in-a-century storm tide - a high flood period in which water levels can rise to more than five metres above the normal tide - in several coastal cities including Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Yangjiang, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Nearly 100 millimetres of rain was reported in the typhoon area, meteorologists said. Hagupit is the 14th strong typhoon to blast the region this year.
Streets were deserted in Guangdong and shops and businesses put up their typhoon shutters against the torrential rain. A disaster relief official said 180,260 hectares of crops were affected and 38,980 hectares were ruined. He said 870 factories stopped production and 34 roads were cut off. In addition, 32 reservoirs and 288 kilometres of dams were damaged. The direct economic loss was 5.45 billion yuan (around €500 million).
The typhoon sidestepped Hong Kong overnight, but it caused widespread damage in islands such as Lantau, where the airport is located, uprooting trees and causing flash floods. It also destroyed a petrol station and a factory.
At this time of year, tropical storms in the region gather intensity from the warm ocean waters and frequently develop into typhoons that hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and southern China.