A woman holds on to her pet as they evacuate from flood waters caused by Typhoon Hato and the tide in Guangzhou in southern China's Guangdong province Wednesday Aug. 23, 2017. Thousands of people were evacuated from parts of the mainland coast ahead of the storm's arrival, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. (Chinatopix Via AP) CHINA OUT

A woman holds on to her pet as they evacuate from flood waters caused by Typhoon Hato and the tide in Guangzhou in southern China's Guangdong province Wednesday Aug. 23, 2017. Thousands of people were evacuated from parts of the mainland coast ahead of the storm's arrival, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. (Chinatopix Via AP) CHINA OUT

HONG KONG (AP) — The most powerful typhoon to hit the southern Chinese region in more than half a century left at least 16 dead as a sudden deluge swamped the gambling hub of Macau, submerging streets and stranding residents.

Macau said Thursday that eight people were killed in the former Portuguese colony, including two men found overnight in a submerged parking garage. Another 153 were injured amid extensive flooding, power outages, and the smashing of doors and windows by high winds and driving rain.

“It’s a calamity, the losses are high and a lot of buildings need repair,” said Macau lawmaker Jose Pereira Coutinho, adding that he heard from many people who still had no water or electricity a day after Typhoon Hato tore across the 30-square kilometer (19-square mile) territory.

Coutinho said the flooding was at its worst in the older parts of the city’s downtown, where narrow lanes date back from Macau’s time as a Portuguese colony for more than four centuries.

“People were just swimming, they cried for help. There were no boats. The water came so suddenly,” said Coutinho, who slammed the city government for having “reacted so slowly and so badly.”

Casinos downtown “were either closed or barely operating,” while some resorts in the newer Cotai district were in better shape but operating without air conditioning, Union Gaming Research analyst Grant Govertsen said in a report.

The chief executive of Macau’s local government, Chui Sai On, ordered measures to “further the relief efforts,” the Government Information Bureau said in a statement Thursday.

Residents waded in waist-high murky water and rows of city buses sat half-submerged on city streets, according to photos circulating among residents. Fallen trees blocked roads, causing traffic snarls, and residents lined up with buckets to collect water from public standpipes, television video showed.

Macau, which is surrounded by water, is vulnerable to high tides and has few options for draining storm runoff. The territory took almost a direct hit from the storm as it churned toward mainland China.

Its reliance on the mainland for electricity compounded problems. Power cuts in neighboring Guangdong province, which supplies nearly 90 percent of Macau’s electricity, cascaded into outages across the city, forcing casino operators, a hospital, and the city’s mobile phone company, CTM, to switch to backup generators.

CTM also said two equipment rooms were seriously damaged by flooding, affecting telecommunications service in the area. Power utility CEM said Thursday it was restoring service but about 40,000 customers remained in the dark because of damaged power supply facilities.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said eight more people were killed in Guangdong and one person remained missing. Typhoon Hato roared into the area Wednesday with winds of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. It weakened into a tropical storm Thursday as it moved farther west inland.

Xinhua said almost 27,000 people were evacuated to emergency shelters, while extensive damage to farmland due to the heavy rain and high tides was also reported. Almost 2 million households lost power temporarily, while fishing boats were called back to port and train services and flights suspended, Xinhua said.

“Compared to other typhoons, Hato moved fast, quickly grew more powerful and caused massive amounts of rainfall,” Wu Zhifang, chief weather forecaster at the Guangdong meteorological bureau, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

By Thursday, a weaker Hato was moving into China’s Guangxi region.

Flooding and injuries were also reported in Hong Kong, which lies across the water 64 kilometers (40 miles) from Macau, but there were no reports of deaths. Hato’s fierce gales blew out windows on skyscrapers in the Asian financial capital, raining shattered glass onto the eerily quiet streets below. Hong Kong’s weather authorities had raised the hurricane signal to the highest level for the first time in five years.

Three of the earlier deaths in Macau were men, aged 30, 45 and 62. One fell from the 11th floor of a building, one was hit by a truck and another was killed when the wind blew down a wall. Two others, a man aged 48 and a woman, 44, died from drowning, according to a press statement. No information was given for the remaining victim.

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Bodeen reported from Beijing.</s>HONG KONG - The most powerful typhoon to hit the southern Chinese region in more than half a century left at least 12 dead as a sudden deluge swamped the gambling hub of Macau, submerging streets and stranding residents.

Macau said Thursday that eight people were killed in the former Portuguese colony, including two men found overnight in a submerged parking garage. Another 153 were injured amid extensive flooding, power outages, and the smashing of doors and windows by high winds and driving rain.

“It’s a calamity, the losses are high and a lot of buildings need repair,” said Macau lawmaker Jose Pereira Coutinho, adding that he heard from many people who still had no water or electricity a day after Typhoon Hato tore across the 30-square kilometer (19-square mile) territory.

Coutinho said the flooding was at its worst in the older parts of the city’s downtown, where narrow lanes date back from Macau’s time as a Portuguese colony for more than four centuries.

“People were just swimming, they cried for help. There were no boats. The water came so suddenly,” said Coutinho, who slammed the city government for a slow response.

More: Typhoon Hato slams into Hong Kong and Macau; at least 3 dead

Residents waded in waist-high murky water and rows of city buses sat half-submerged on city streets, according to photos circulating among residents. Fallen trees blocked roads, causing traffic snarls, and residents lined up with buckets to collect water from public standpipes, television video showed.

Macau, which is surrounded by water, is vulnerable to high tides and has few options for draining storm runoff. The territory took almost a direct hit from the storm as it churned toward mainland China.

Its reliance on the mainland for electricity compounded problems. Power cuts in neighboring Guangdong province, which supplies nearly 90 percent of Macau’s electricity, cascaded into outages across the city, forcing casino operators, a hospital, and the city’s mobile phone company, CTM, to switch to backup generators.

CTM also said two equipment rooms were seriously damaged by flooding, affecting telecommunications service in the area. Power utility CEM said Thursday it was restoring service but about 40,000 customers remained in the dark because of damaged power supply facilities.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said four more people were killed in Guangdong and one person remained missing. Typhoon Hato roared into the area Wednesday with winds of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. It weakened into a tropical storm Thursday as it moved farther west inland.

Xinhua said almost 27,000 people were evacuated to emergency shelters, while extensive damage to farmland due to the heavy rain and high tides was also reported. Almost 2 million households lost power temporarily, while fishing boats were called back to port and train services and flights suspended, Xinhua said.

“Compared to other typhoons, Hato moved fast, quickly grew more powerful and caused massive amounts of rainfall,” Wu Zhifang, chief weather forecaster at the Guangdong meteorological bureau, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

By Thursday, a weaker Hato was moving into China’s Guangxi region.

Flooding and injuries were also reported in Hong Kong, which lies across the water 64 kilometers (40 miles) from Macau, but there were no reports of deaths. Hato’s fierce gales blew out windows on skyscrapers in the Asian financial capital, raining shattered glass onto the eerily quiet streets below. Hong Kong’s weather authorities had raised the hurricane signal to the highest level for the first time in five years.

Three of the earlier deaths in Macau were men, aged 30, 45 and 62. One fell from the 11th floor of a building, one was hit by a truck and another was killed when the wind blew down a wall. Two others, a man aged 48 and a woman, 44, died from drowning, according to a press statement. No information was given for the remaining victim.</s>BEIJING (AP) - The most powerful typhoon to hit the southern Chinese region in more than half a century has left at least 12 dead as a sudden deluge swamped the gambling hub of Macau, submerging streets and stranding residents.

Eight people were killed in Macau, including two men found overnight in a parking garage. Another 153 were injured amid extensive flooding, power outages, and the smashing of doors and windows by the high winds and driving rain.

Xinhua News Agency says four more people were killed in the neighboring province of Guangdong and one is missing. Hato roared with winds of up to 160 kilometers (99 miles) per hour.

Macau lawmaker Jose Pereira Coutinho says "people were just swimming, they cried for help. There were no boats. The water came so suddenly."

A man takes pictures against strong wind caused by typhoon Hato at a housing area in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017. A powerful typhoon barreled into Hong Kong on Wednesday, forcing offices and schools to close and leaving flooded streets, shattered windows and hundreds of canceled flights in its wake. (Apple Daily via AP)

A woman holds on to her pet as they evacuate from flood waters caused by Typhoon Hato and the tide in Guangzhou in southern China's Guangdong province Wednesday Aug. 23, 2017. Thousands of people were evacuated from parts of the mainland coast ahead of the storm's arrival, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. (Chinatopix Via AP) CHINA OUT</s>At least 12 people have been killed as a powerful typhoon hit the autonomous region of Macau and other areas in southern China.

Typhoon Hato, a maximum category 10 storm, is the most violent typhoon to hit the southern region in recent decades.

The powerful storm uprooted trees, flooded streets and caused power outages, forcing businesses to close. Heavy rains and high winds smashed doors and windows.

At least eight people were reported dead and another 153 injured in Macau. Victims include two men who were found dead overnight in a parking garage.

"It's a calamity, the losses are high and a lot of buildings need repair," Macau lawmaker Jose Pereira Coutinho told AP.

He added that many people had no water or electricity and narrow streets in the older parts of the city had been flooded.

"People were just swimming, they cried for help. There were no boats. The water came so suddenly," he said.

Another four people were killed in Guangdong province, according to state news agency Xinhua. One person remains missing and another 26,817 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters.

"Compared to other typhoons, Hato moved fast, quickly grew more powerful and caused massive amounts of rainfall," Wu Zhifang, chief weather forecaster at Guangdong meteorological bureau, told Xinhua.

Meteorologists had warned of high floods as the typhoon occurred during high tides. A weaker Hato is moving into China's Guangxi region.

Another 34 people were reported injured when the typhoon hit the financial hub of Hong Kong on Wednesday (23 August). At least 450 flights were cancelled, financial markets suspended and schools closed as a result of the storm.

Hato is the first category 10 storm to hit Hong Kong since typhoon Vicente in 2012.

"I've never seen one like this," Garrett Quigley, a longtime resident of Lantau island, told Reuters. "Cars are half submerged and roads are impassable with flooding and huge trees down. It's crazy."

The storm in Hong Kong was downgraded to category three on Wednesday afternoon.</s>Southern China is dealing with the aftermath of Typhoon Hato which has left 16 people dead and 153 injured.

Worst hit in the area is the former Portuguese territory of Macau where nine people were killed and rescuers still searching today through submerged cars for trapped people.

The typhoon struck the region with winds of more than 200 kilometres an hour (124 miles per hour).

Macau's government broadcaster TDM said Typhoon Hato, a maximum signal 10 storm, was the strongest since 1968 to hit the world's biggest gambling hub and home to around 600,000 people.

Many residents said that the Macau government were unprepared for the typhoon.

Ashley Sutherland-Winch, a marketing consultant in Macau told Reuters: 'I am shocked with the late notice and lack of preparation that was given for this superstorm. Residents are in peril and unable to assess if help is on the way.'

Many of the casinos in the region were operating on back up power.

Hong Kong was also hit by the storm with trees uprooted, streets flooded and hundreds of flights cancelled.

Financial trading was also halted on Wednesday.

34 people were said to be injured in Hong Kong.

While in the neighbouring southern Chinese province of Guangdong, 27,000 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters. Nearly two million households were briefly without power.

In Zhuhai, which borders Macau, the estimated damage is thought to be 5.5 billion yuan (£644 million).

Southern China is regularly battered by typhoons during July and October. 



Terrifying video clips have emerged on social media showing the devastating destruction brought by Typhoon Hato in populous cities like Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and Zhuhai on the Chinese coast.

Footage shows high winds, with gusts of up to 207 kph (129 mph), blowing pedestrians off their feet, overturning vans, ripping roofs off buildings and destroying construction cranes on top of high-rises.

Several buildings, thought to be temporary dormitories on a construction site, can be seen being pushed by winds like toys. One clip shows huge waves crashing straight into people's living room.</s>AT LEAST eight people are said to have been killed and many missing after maximum category 10 storm Typhoon Hato smashed into the southeast Chinese territory of Macau.

“The city looks like it was just in a war,” one civil servant told Reuters, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said on Thursday. Macau’s government broadcaster TDM said Typhoon Hato was the strongest since 1968.

Hato on Wednesday battered the financial hub of Hong Kong, uprooting trees, flooding streets, forcing hundreds of airline flights to be canceled and halting financial trading. There were reports of 34 people injured in Hong Kong, which had not been hit by a category 10 typhoon for five years.

Hato’s path of destruction continued on to the former Portuguese colony of Macau, across the Pearl River estuary, and China’s Guangdong Province.

Thousands of Chinese were evacuated from coastal areas ahead of Hato hitting the mainland. Chinese authorities are directing citizens to stockpile enough supplies for one to three days, reported the state news agency Xinhua.

Winds of more than 200 kmh smashed into apartments across Macau, breaking large doors and sending sheets of glass flying through the air.

Macau’s water system pumps were severely damaged and power was cut to over half of Macau, home to around 600,000 people.

While most of the large casinos were operating as normal, many were relying on back-up generators for power.

Severe flooding overwhelmed the teeming enclave which is in the process of building new infrastructure such as a light rail to cope with a surge in visitors.

In Guangdong province numerous flights and trains were cancelled, with Shenzhen’s International Airport particularly badly hit. Thousands of residents along the Chinese coast were evacuated and fishing vessels were called back to port.

More than 420 flights in and out of Hong Kong were cancelled.

Maximum winds near Hato’s centre were recorded at a destructive 155 kmh as it continued to move west across Guangdong in the general direction of Hainan island.

Hato had been downgraded to a tropical storm on Thursday and was about 680 km west of Hong Kong and expected to weaken further as it moves inland over China.</s>BEIJING - The most powerful typhoon to hit the southern Chinese region in more than half a century has left at least 12 dead as a sudden deluge swamped the gambling hub of Macau, submerging streets and stranding residents.

 

 Eight people were killed in Macau, including two men found overnight in a parking garage. Another 153 were injured amid extensive flooding, power outages, and the smashing of doors and windows by the high winds and driving rain.

 

 Xinhua News Agency says four more people were killed in the neighboring province of Guangdong and one is missing. Hato roared with winds of up to 160 kilometers (99 miles) per hour.

 

 Macau lawmaker Jose Pereira Coutinho says "people were just swimming, they cried for help. There were no boats. The water came so suddenly."</s>The Chinese army on Friday joined relief efforts in Macau where at least 10 people died after a huge typhoon ripped through the gambling hub, as troops were drafted in to clear piles of debris still blocking streets.

Around 48 hours after Severe Typhoon Hato smashed into southern China, worst-hit Macau was still picking up the pieces, with the enclave’s government facing recriminations over its lack of preparation.

The government sent a request to Chinese authorities asking for the assistance of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Macau garrison to assist in relief efforts, the first such request since the city was handed over to China in 1999.

“The PLA Macau Garrison have joined hands with the Macau Government and the Macau public for post-typhoon relief and construction work,” a government statement said Friday.

Authorities said around 1,000 troops were mobilised in the morning.

Residents volunteered to pick debris off the streets alongside troops who were seen clearing away items ranging from computer equipment to gas cylinders.

The official death toll in Macau hit 10 Friday night after yet another man’s body was pulled from an underground car park.

A further eight people are known to have died in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong.

“It’s been absolutely devastating for Macau,” Andrew Scott, chief executive officer of O MEDIA, a media company in the city, told AFP.

“There is a real air of despondency. Each addition to the death toll is absolutely demoralising to the citizens of Macau,” he said.

A taxi driver who identified himself as Ben said he expected the PLA to handle the clean-up effectively.

“There are so many disasters in China, they can handle it in a couple of days, a situation like this could be quite easy for them,” he said.

On Thursday evening, as residents of the former Portuguese colony queued for drinking water, Macau’s leader Fernando Chui and other government ministers bowed their heads for a minute’s silence and made a public apology.

“These two days, we have faced an extremely difficult test together. Hato is the strongest typhoon in 53 years and has brought tremendous damage to Macau,” Chui told reporters.

“In facing this disaster, we admit we have not done enough, there is space for improvement,” he said, adding that the city’s meteorological bureau chief had resigned.

Casinos, which brought in more than $28 billion in 2016 — over half of Macau’s GDP — were among the casualties of the storm, and reporters who got inside the Wynn Macau found switched off slot machines and no air conditioning.

Other casinos and resort facilities in the city were either shut or running at limited capacity.

“It will probably take at least a week to normalise again and for visitors to feel comfortable about coming again,” gaming analyst Ben Lee of IGamiX consultancy told AFP, adding that some casinos were unprepared for the severity of the storm.

In Hong Kong, Hato — whose name is Japanese for “pigeon” — sparked the most severe Typhoon 10 warning, only the third time a storm of this power has pounded the financial hub in the past 20 years.

Although 120 people were hurt, there were no fatalities in the city, where careful planning and long experience with extreme weather is credited with limiting the devastation.

But the Hong Kong Observatory warned Friday night of another tropical cyclone heading towards the area, estimated it to make landfall on the Chinese coast some 177 kilometres (110 miles) west of Macau on Sunday night.</s>HONG KONG — A powerful typhoon caused at least three deaths Wednesday in Macau, according to local authorities in the Chinese gambling enclave.

Three men, aged 30, 45 and 62, were killed in falls and accidents related to the heavy rain and gusting winds from Typhoon Hato, and two other people were listed as missing, Macau's Government Information Bureau said.

The typhoon came within 60 kilometres (37 miles) of the nearby financial centre of Hong Kong before heading westward into mainland China, where it was gradually weakening.

China's weather service said the storm made landfall around noon in the Pearl River Delta city of Zhuhai in the neighbouring province of Guangdong.</s>A strong typhoon struck the coast of China Wednesday, bringing massive winds and flooding to the cities of Macau and Hong Kong.

Twelve people have been reported killed so far following Typhoon Hato’s arrival in southern China.

Eight people died in the gaming mecca and former Portuguese colony of Macau, according to a spokeswoman for the government.

Among the dead were a 62-year-old man who died in a fall, a 45-year-old man who was hit and killed by a car and a 30-year-old man who was trapped under a wall.

Meanwhile in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, four people have been reported dead so far according to Chinese state media Xinhua.

The storm made landfall Wednesday morning and caused widespread power outages throughout Macau, according to local media.

Photos and videos posted on social media during the storm showed surging waves, collapsed scaffolding and flash flooding across the island.

Hato initially was a mid-level tropical storm but quickly strengthened into a typhoon, according to CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

More than 60 million people across densely populated southern China ended up being in the storm’s path, he said.

The Hong Kong Observatory, the city’s weather service, declared a Signal 10 Tropical Cyclone Warning — the highest-level storm alert — early Wednesday.

It’s the first time in five years the city was hit with a T-10 typhoon.

Massive swells and flooding affected multiple areas in Hong Kong — the storm struck during high tide — and many trees were uprooted in the city’s coastal regions.

According to the Hong Kong government, almost 700 reports of fallen trees were made across the city by the evening, while more than 100 people sought medical treatment.

Most businesses were closed as the storm struck, as was the financial hub’s stock market.

Winds as fast as 77 kilometers per hour (48 mph) with maximum gusts of 127 kilometers per hour (79 mph) were recorded on Lantau Island, where the Hong Kong International Airport is located.

Some 480 flights were canceled on Wednesday evening, an airport official said, while on Thursday their website was still warning of potential delays.

A high water level of 3.7 meters (more than 12 feet) was recorded in the fishing village of Tai O on Lantau Island, the observatory said.
At least 12 people die in the southern Chinese city of Macau as a result of flooding caused by Typhoon Hato. Four more people die in neighbouring Guangdong province.