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At least 25 killed as typhoon causes chaos in south China
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Typhoon Usagi has killed at least 25 people after crashing ashore in southern China, throwing the region’s transport systems into chaos and leaving tens of thousands of airline passengers stranded yesterday.
Schools and businesses remained shut as activity in the normally teeming financial hub of Hong Kong slowed to a crawl after Usagi — the world’s most powerful storm this year — battered a long swathe of coastline with torrential rain and winds of up to 165 kilometers per hour the previous night.
The deaths were reported after Usagi made landfall near Shanwei City in Guangdong Province northeast of Hong Kong on Sunday evening, prompting the highest-level alert from the National Meteorological Center.
They were killed after the typhoon brought down trees and damaged roads. Dozens more were injured in accidents, Xinhua news agency reported.
A total of 5.48 million people were affected and 310,000 residents displaced due to the storm, officials said. Some 8,490 houses collapsed and 50,800 hectares of cropland was damaged.
Bullet trains from Guangzhou City to Beijing were suspended. More than 47,000 fishing boats were in harbor and schools were closed in 14 coastal cities, Xinhua reported.
The typhoon resulted in direct economic losses of 7.1 billion yuan (US$1.16 billion) in Guangdong, officials said.
Usagi devastated the eastern part of the province, with water and electricity supplies cut off in several counties in Shanwei.
“The toll in our city included seven deaths at a railway construction site. The majority of casualties were due to the collapse of houses where people took shelter,” said Xiao Zhan, deputy head of the Shanwei Water Authority.
“This is the strongest storm we have ever seen in the past 30 years. It is really terrible,” said a resident surnamed Zheng.
Tens of thousands of people had their travel plans disrupted. Many passengers had been forced to stay overnight at Hong Kong airport, sleeping on the floor or spending the night playing card games.
Many milled around the departure hall hoping to rebook their flights.
“We’ve waited for so long and we still can’t leave. Who would not be unhappy?” Iris Ouyang, an irate 26-year-old marketing officer from Beijing told AFP, after waiting more than 12 hours for her China Southern flight.
Airlines scrambled to clear the backlog of passengers by regrouping passengers and arranging extra flights as more than 1,000 passengers waited in the check-in area.
But airport authorities couldn’t prevent a second day of flight disruptions, with more than 480 scheduled flights cancelled or delayed.
Usagi had downgraded into a tropical depression by the time its center entered neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at midday yesterday.
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