HONG KONG — Typhoon Mangkhut barreled into southern China on Sunday after lashing the northern Philippines with strong winds and heavy rain that left at least 64 people dead and dozens more feared buried in a landslide. More than 2.4 million people had been evacuated in southern China’s Guangdong province by Sunday evening to flee the massive typhoon. More than 2.4 million people had been evacuated in southern China’s Guangdong province by Sunday evening to flee the massive typhoon and nearly 50,000 fishing boats were called back to port, state media reported. The gambling enclave of Macau closed casinos for the first time and the Hong Kong Observatory warned people to stay away from the Victoria Harbour landmark, where storm surges battered the sandbag-reinforced waterfront. Hong Kong’s RTHK broadcaster cited experts as saying Mangkhut was expected to be the strongest typhoon to hit the city in decades. The Hong Kong Observatory issued its strongest storm warning for 10 hours on Sunday, just slightly shorter than the record time of 11 hours set by Typhoon York in 1999, the South China Morning Post reported. The storm made landfall in the Guangdong city of Taishan at 5 p.m., packing wind speeds of 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. State television broadcaster CGTN reported that surging waves flooded a seaside hotel in the city of Shenzhen. Groceries flew off the shelves of supermarkets in the provincial capital of Guangzhou as residents stocked up in anticipation of being confined at home by the typhoon, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. Authorities in southern China issued a red alert, the most severe warning, as the national meteorological center said the densely populated region would face a “severe test caused by wind and rain” and urged officials to prepare for possible disasters. Hundreds of flights were canceled. All high-speed and some normal rail services in Guangdong and Hainan provinces were also halted, the China Railway Guangzhou Group Co. said. In Hong Kong, a video posted online by residents showed the top corner of an old building break and fall off, while in another video, a tall building swayed as strong winds blew. The storm also broke windows, felled trees, tore bamboo scaffolding off buildings under construction and flooded areas with sometimes waist-high waters, according to the South China Morning Post. The paper said the heavy rains brought storm surges of 3 meters (10 feet) around Hong Kong. Hong Kong Security Minister John Lee Ka-chiu urged residents to prepare for the worst. “Because Mangkhut will bring winds and rains of extraordinary speeds, scope and severity, our preparation and response efforts will be greater than in the past,” Lee said. “Each department must have a sense of crisis, make a comprehensive assessment and plan, and prepare for the worst.” Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific said all of its flights would be canceled between 2:30 a.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday. The city of Shenzhen also canceled all flights between Sunday and early Monday morning. Hainan Airlines canceled 234 flights in the cities of Haikou, Sanya, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai scheduled over the weekend. In Macau, next door to Hong Kong, casinos were ordered to close from 11 p.m. Saturday, the first time such action was taken in the city, the South China Morning Post reported. Macau suffered catastrophic flooding during Typhoon Hato last year, leading to accusations of corruption and incompetence at its meteorological office. In Macau’s inner harbor district, the water level reached 1.5 meters (5 feet) on Sunday and was expected to rise further. The district was one of the most affected by floods from Typhoon Hato, which left 10 people dead. In the northern Philippines, Mangkhut made landfall Saturday on the northeastern tip of Luzon island with sustained winds of 205 kilometers (127 miles) per hour and gusts of 255 kph (158 mph). Dozens of people, mostly small-scale miners and their families, were feared to have been trapped by a landslide in the far-flung village of Ucab in Itogon town in the northern Philippines’ Benguet province, Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said by phone on Sunday. Palangdan said three villagers who nearly got buried by the huge pile of mud and rocks told authorities they saw residents rush into an old three-story building, a former mining bunkhouse that has been transformed into a chapel, at the height of the typhoon’s onslaught Saturday afternoon. “That was not an authorized evacuation center,” Palangdan said, but expressed sadness that the villagers, many of them poor miners, had few options to survive in a region where big corporations have profited immensely from gold mines. Police Superintendent Pelita Tacio said 34 villagers had died and 36 remained missing in the landslides in Ucab and another village in Itogon town. Rescuers were scrambling to pull out the body of a victim from the mound of mud and rocks in Ucab before Tacio left the area Sunday. “It’s very sad. I could hear villagers wailing in their homes near the site of the accident,” Tacio said by phone. Rescuers were hampered by rain and mud, and the search and rescue operation was suspended at nightfall and will resume at daybreak Monday, Palangdan said. Police and their vehicles could not immediately reach the landside-hit area because the ground was unstable and soaked from the heavy rains, regional police chief Rolando Nana told the ABS-CBN TV network. Overall, at least 64 people have died in typhoon incidents in the northern Philippines, mostly from landslides and collapsed houses, according to the national police. Forty-five other people were missing and 33 were injured in the storm. The hardest-hit province was Benguet, where 38 people died, mostly in two landslides, and 37 are missing, the police said. Still, the Philippines appeared to have been spared the high number of casualties many had feared. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened villages and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines. A massive evacuation ahead of Mangkhut helped lessen potential casualties, with about 87,000 people evacuating from high-risk areas, officials said. Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde told The Associated Press that 20 people died in the Cordillera mountain region, four in nearby Nueva Vizcaya province and another outside of the two regions. Three more deaths were reported in northeastern Cagayan province, where the typhoon made landfall. The typhoon struck at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in the Philippines’ northern breadbasket, prompting farmers to scramble to save what they could of their crops, Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said. Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Aaron Favila and Joeal Calupitan in Tuguegarao, Philippines, and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Hurricanes A guide to the world's deadliest storms Hurricanes are violent storms that can bring devastation to coastal areas, threatening lives, homes and businesses. Hurricanes develop from thunderstorms, fuelled by warm, moist air as they cross sub-tropical waters. Warm air rises into the storm. Air swirls in to fill the low pressure in the storm, sucking air in and upwards, reinforcing the low pressure. The storm rotates due to the spin of the earth and energy from the warm ocean increases wind speeds as it builds. When winds reach 119km/h (74mph), it is known as a hurricane - in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific - or a typhoon in the Western Pacific. "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Well, we're about to get punched in the face." Florida Mayor Bob Buckhorn, ahead of Hurricane Irma (2017) The central eye of calmer weather is surrounded by a wall of rainstorms. This eyewall has the fastest winds below it and violent currents of air rising through it. A mound of water piles up below the eye which is unleashed as the storm reaches land. These storm surges can cause more damage from flooding than the winds. "Urgent warning about the rapid rise of water on the SW FL coast with the passage of #Irma's eye. MOVE AWAY FROM THE WATER!" Tweet from the National Hurricane Center The size of hurricanes is mainly measured by the Saffir-Simpson scale - other scales are used in Asia Pacific and Australia. Winds 119-153km/h Some minor flooding, little structural damage. Storm surge +1.2m-1.5m Winds 154-177km/h Roofs and trees could be damaged. Storm surge +1.8m-2.4m Winds 178-208km/h Houses suffer damage, severe flooding Storm surge +2.7m-3.7m Hurricane Sandy (2012) caused $71bn damage in the Caribbean and New York Winds 209-251km/h Some roofs destroyed and major structural damage to houses. Storm surge +4m-5.5m Hurricane Ike (2008) hit Caribbean islands and Louisiana and was blamed for at least 195 deaths Winds 252km/h+ Serious damage to buildings, severe flooding further inland. Storm surge +5.5m Hurricane Irma (2017) caused devastation in Caribbean islands, leaving thousands homeless<doc-sep>The broader Pearl River Delta area, which also includes Hong Kong, is one of the world’s most important manufacturing hubs and home to more than 60 million people. The sprawling delta is barely above sea level and has struggled with flooding despite years of investment in drainage systems. Climate change has exacerbated the problem. The provincial capital, Guangzhou, has more to lose from rising seas and more severe storms than any other city on the planet, according to a World Bank report. Protecting China’s nuclear plants The arrival of Typhoon Mangkhut in southern China has raised concerns about the nuclear plants that supply electricity to local manufacturers. But the area is battered by typhoons almost every year, and the Chinese government has stringent standards requiring that all critical infrastructure be able to withstand severe weather. Workers have been taking precautionary measures at two nuclear plants along the coastline, Taishan and Yangjiang. The first reactor of the Taishan complex went online this past summer, so Typhoon Mangkhut will be its first major storm. The plant’s managers said they had held detailed planning meetings and a thorough safety inspection in the days before the storm. “All emergency duty personnel of Taishan Nuclear Power have been on the job, all preparations have been implemented, and the Taishan Nuclear Power Base is ready,” they said in a statement on WeChat, a Chinese internet service. The management of the Yangjiang power plant, which is right on the coast, said in a separate statement on WeChat that it had been designed to withstand large storm surges. Outdoor equipment was tied down or removed to make the site more windproof, and the reactor buildings themselves, which have reinforced concrete shells, are extremely rigid, the company said. Driving along the coast, amid flying debris<doc-sep>
Mangkhut, the Thai name for Southeast Asia's mangosteen fruit, skirted 100 kilometres south of Hong Kong and veered west towards the coast of Guangdong and the gaming centre of Macau. The typhoon killed at least two people in China after making landfall in southern Guangdong province on Sunday night, injuring more than 200 people in Hong Kong. Chinese state television reported that two people had died in Guangdong. Strong wind caused by Typhoon Mangkhut churns waves on the waterfront of Victoria Habour Hong Kong. Credit:AP Hong Kong’s high rise skyline swayed under the force of Mangkhut, unnerving residents in the precipitously tall rocking buildings, as it swept through the island as a Signal 10, the highest possible typhoon warning level. Macau saw extensive flooding in the inner harbour area, and the island’s famous casinos were shut, as electricity was cut for safety reasons. Videos shared on social media showed Hong Kong apartments with flooded basements, flooded sports stadiums and reams of office paper flying out into the air through punctured high-rise office windows. Scaffolding also came loose and crashed to the ground. In the mainland city of Shenzhen, the Meishawan Hotel was flooded as storm surge broke through the hotel’s glass doors. Women holding umbrellas walk by fallen tree branches caused by typhoon Mangkhut in Nanshan District in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. Credit:AP Chinese media reported that more than 2.45 million people had been evacuated in mainland Guangdong province. Winds in Mangkhut had reached 162 km/hr. In Hong Kong, residents reported that buildings swayed and windows smashed as winds swept through. "It swayed for quite a long time, at least two hours. It made me feel so dizzy," said Elaine Wong, who lives in a high-rise tower in Kowloon. Water levels surged 3.5 metres in some places, and waves swamped roads and washed up live fish, flowing into some residential blocks and a mall in an eastern district. "It's the worst I've seen," resident Martin Wong said. "I've not seen the roads flood like this, the windows shake like this, before." The plans of tens of thousands of travellers were disrupted by flight cancellations at Hong Kong's international airport, a major regional hub. Airlines such as flagship carrier Cathay Pacific cancelled many flights last week. Philippine authorities said a baby and a toddler were among the dead, most killed in landslides in mountainous areas that left at least 13 missing. "The landslides happened as some residents returned to their homes after the typhoon," disaster response coordinator Francis Tolentino told DZMM Radio, adding that most of the 5.7 million people affected had made advance preparations. Typhoon Mangkhut belted Hong Kong with mammoth gales and rain as it moved along the coast of China's Guangdong province. Credit:Bloomberg "It was not so severe as we expected it to be because earlier it was noted it would also be strong," said President Rodrigo Duterte, following an aerial survey of some affected areas. The typhoon triggered floods and knocked out electricity in seven provinces in the Philippines, affecting more than 4 million people. In Macau, which halted casino gambling late on Saturday and put China's People's Liberation Army on standby for disaster relief help, some streets were flooded. "The suspension is for the safety of casino employees, visitors to the city, and residents," said authorities in the world's largest gambling hub, who faced criticism last year after a typhoon that killed nine and caused severe damage. China has ordered thousands of boats to return to harbour, and evacuated thousands of offshore oil platform workers, the state news agency, Xinhua, said. 'King of storms' The typhoon, dubbed the "King of Storms" by Chinese media, made landfall in Haiyan town at 5pm local time, packing winds of more than 160km/h, weather officials said. Ports, oil refineries and industrial plants in the area have been shut. Power to some areas were also reduced as a precaution. The storm has fuelled concern about sugar production in Guangdong, which accounts for a tenth of national output, at about 1 million tonnes. China sugar futures rose last week on fears for the cane crop. Guangdong is also China's most populous province, with a population of more than 100 million. Residents and relatives of miners in Itogon, in the northern Philippines, evacuate following landslides triggered by Typhoon Mangkhut. Credit:AP The airport in the boomtown of Shenzhen has been shut since midnight, and will be closed until 8am on Monday.