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Thousands leave home as typhoon hits Hainan
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A TYPHOON slammed into southern China yesterday, swamping ships, grounding flights and forcing thousands of people — many of them still recovering from a previous storm — to leave home.
Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall on the east coast of Hainan Island packing winds of up to 144 kilometers an hour, the China Meteorological Administration said.
More than 20,000 residents have been resettled in 24 camps in Hainan since Monday, following earlier reports which said 90,000 people were evacuated.
Kalmaegi follows Typhoon Rammasun in July, the strongest storm to hit China in four decades, which killed 62 people and left swathes of devastation in the south of the country.
Survivors of Rammasun told Xinhua news agency that while Kalmaegi appears weaker, they still feared for their livelihoods.
“Our new house has yet to be completed and we suffer again,” Gao Yuanfu, who has been living in a tent since Rammasun destroyed his house, said.
“It is only half a month away from the harvest,” he added.
Gao, from Hainan’s Wengtian Township, badly injured his leg in the previous typhoon, Xinhua said.
Images of the havoc caused by Kalmaegi showed scores of downed trees, streets flooded in knee-deep water and torrential rain.
More than 170 flights on Hainan were canceled as of 9am yesterday, while 4,300 fishing boats in one county were called back, Xinhua said, following reports late Monday that 30,000 vessels had returned to harbor.
Rescuers in a helicopter plucked 12 Chinese sailors from a sinking cargo vessel as the storm approached the Chinese coast, Xinhua said.
Local governments in China were told to prepare for “disaster-relief operations,” while ferry services between Hainan and the mainland were suspended.
Kalmaegi hit the Chinese mainland after sweeping past Hong Kong, where it disrupted flights and forced the closure of the stock market and container port.
It buffeted the city with gusts up to 159 kilometers per hour as it headed west, injuring some 29 people, felling scores of trees and causing floods and a landslide.
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