Typhoon Saola advances this Saturday along the southern coast of China after uprooting trees and causing multiple damages in the city of Hong Kongwhich avoided the direct hit of one of the strongest storms in decades in the region.
Tens of millions of people in this densely populated area around the Pearl River Delta had locked themselves in their homes on the eve of the arrival of the cyclone, then classified as a super typhoon.
In Hong Kong, authorities issued the highest level alert for typhoons, which has been activated only 16 times since World War II, for several hours, with some areas registering gusts of up to 210 km/h at their strongest.
Early Saturday morning, the cyclone was downgraded to a severe typhoon as it passed the international financial center en route to other coastal areas of mainland China, Without having caused victims for the moment and less damage than the powerful Mangkhut of 2018.
Even so, the authorities asked to maintain vigilance in the face of sustained winds of 145 km / h in the center of the cyclone, violent storms and rising sea levels. On the streets of Hong Kong, journalists saw numerous fallen trees, scattered scaffolding and broken windows.
(Furthermore: Mongolian President assures the Pope that his country is committed to keeping the peace).
Local media said the winds ripped solar panels off the roofs of the buildings. “Yesterday was a little scary,” Angelie said on Saturday morning, as she headed out to see a friend despite the heavy and persistent rain.
“In our development, there were a lot of fallen trees and some broken windows,” he explained.
Tommy Wang, a shopkeeper, remembers hearing the violent wind whistle as he slept in his small shop in the Causeway Bay shopping district. “I did not leave the store because the transport did not work. I had no other option,” he said.
The storm’s passage did not wreak as much havoc as Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, which injured more than 300 people in this city and killed six on mainland China.
(Also: Seoul approves new sanctions against Pyongyang for failed satellite launch.)
Another typhoon towards Taiwan
Hong Kong’s airport authority said on Saturday it was gradually resuming flights after mass cancellations and delays the previous day.
The neighboring city of Macau, international center of the gameannounced the reopening of its many casinos that, in something very unusual, closed the day before due to the intensity of the Saola.
The typhoon also did not directly hit this former Portuguese colony, but made landfall just south of it in the early morning city of Zhuhai in Guangdong province, the China National Meteorological Center said.
(Of your interest: The World Heritage glaciers that will disappear by 2050).
This agency said the day before that Saola could become the “most powerful” typhoon recorded since 1949 in the Pearl River Delta. The authorities evacuated more than 880,000 people from the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian (further east), ordered the return to port of 80,000 fishing boats and postponed the start of the school year in 13 cities.
Southern China regularly receives typhoons during the boreal summer and fall, which form in the warm ocean waters east of the Philippines and move westward.
In fact, at the gates of the South China Sea, another typhoon, Haikui, is moving rapidly towards Taiwan, where the authorities issued alerts although a moderate impact is expected. Climate change has increased the intensity of tropical storms, with more rain and stronger gusts causing flash flooding and coastal damage, experts say.
AFP
More news in EL TIEMPO
#Typhoon #Saola #arrives #weakened #southern #China #passing #Hong #Kong