In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, coconut trees hit by typhoon Yagi along a road in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A powerful typhoon killed two people and left at least 92 injured in the southern Chinese island of Hainan, authorities said on Saturday (September 07, 20204), with heavy rains and winds causing power outages in over 800,000 households.

The typhoon Yagi is currently en route to northern Vietnam over the Gulf of Tonkin on Saturday, with Vietnamese authorities describing Yagi as “one of the most powerful typhoons in the region over the past decade.” The typhoon on Friday afternoon struck Hainan’s Wenchang city, with wind speeds of up to about 245 kph (152 mph) near its centre.

China’s national meteorological authorities said Yagi was the strongest autumn typhoon to have landed in China.

Some 420,000 residents were relocated in Hainan prior to the typhoon’s landfall in Hainan. Another half a million people in Guangdong province were evacuated before Yagi made a second landfall in the province’s Xuwen County on Friday night.

Haikou’s meteorological observatory downgraded its typhoon signal from red to orange on Saturday, as the typhoon moved further away from the city.

In Hong Kong, more than 270 people were forced to seek refuge at temporary government shelters on Friday, and more than 100 flights in the city were cancelled due to the typhoon. Heavy rain and strong winds felled dozens of trees, and trading on the stock market, bank services and schools were halted.

Yagi was still a storm when it blew out of the northwestern Philippines into the South China Sea on Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people dead and 17 others missing mostly in landslides and widespread flooding and affecting more than 2 million people across the archipelago.

More than 47,600 people were displaced from their homes in Philippine provinces and classes, work, inter-island ferry services and domestic flights were disrupted for days, including in the densely populated capital region, metropolitan Manila.

A worker clears leaves and branches of trees fallen by the road after Typhoon Koinu passed the southern tip of Taiwan, near Jinlun, Taiwan on October 5, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China warned on October 7 of big waves, heavy rain and strong wind as Typhoon Koinu approaches the southern province of Guangdong and Hainan island.

Waves of up to nine metres were expected in the South China Sea under the impact of the storm on Saturday and Sunday, the State Oceanic Administration said as it issued an orange alert, the second highest in a four-coloured warning system.

Koinu, which means “puppy” in Japanese, is heading west along China’s southern coast at a speed of 5-10 kph, the National Meteorological Centre.

It is expected to weaken into a strong tropical storm from late on Monday.

Koinu had killed one person and injured almost 400 people in Taiwan, causing some of the most extensive damage on remote Orchid Island off the island’s east coast.

Boats with Chinese and Hong Kong flags are berthed at the Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter as Super Typhoon Saola approaches Hong Kong on September 1, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Most of Hong Kong and other parts of southern China ground to a near standstill on September 1 with classes and flights cancelled as Super Typhoon Saola edged closer.

The typhoon could make a landfall in southern China and many workers stayed at home. Students in various cities saw the start of their school year postponed to next week. Hong Kong’s stock market trading was suspended and more than 400 flights were cancelled or delayed in the key centre for regional business and travel.

Mainland Chinese rail authorities ordered all trains entering or leaving Guangdong province to be suspended from Friday night to early evening Saturday, state media CCTV reported.

The Hong Kong Observatory raised a No. 8 typhoon signal, the third-highest warning under the city’s weather system, early Friday. Its forecast said Saola — with maximum sustained winds of 210 km (130 miles) per hour — would be closest to the financial hub on Friday night and Saturday morning, skirting within about 50 km (30 miles) south of the city’s shopping district Tsim Sha Tsui.

The observatory’s director, Chan Pak-wai, said on Thursday the alert might be upgraded to a No. 10 signal if the strength of the winds reached hurricane levels. The No. 10 hurricane signal is the highest warning under its system and was last hoisted when Super Typhoon Mangkhut hit Hong Kong in 2018.

Chan expected the winds would gradually weaken on Saturday as the typhoon moves away from Hong Kong.

The observatory warned serious flooding might occur in low-lying coastal areas and that the maximum water level might be similar to that when Mangkhut felled trees and tore scaffolding off buildings under construction in the city.

As the city braced for heavy rains and strong winds on Friday morning, about 190 people sought refuge at temporary shelters, with some ferry and bus services halted. Residents living in low-lying areas had placed sand bags at their doors to prevent their homes being flooded. The government received two reports of fallen trees and three flooding cases. One man was injured during the typhoon period and sought treatment at a public hospital.

Weather authorities in the nearby casino hub of Macao also warned of flooding, forecasting that the water level might reach up to 1.5 metres (5 feet) in low-lying areas on Saturday morning. The cross-border bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai city would be closed in mid-afternoon.

In the technology and finance hub Shenzhen, its emergency management bureau ordered to suspend work and businesses starting from late afternoon, as the typhoon was expected to make landfall in the city or its nearby areas on Friday night. All entries to highways in the city would be banned starting from 7 p.m. until further notice, except for rescue crews.

China’s National Meteorological Center said Saola could make landfall from Huidong County to Taishan city in Guangdong province, neighbouring Hong Kong, between Friday night and Saturday morning. But it also did not rule out it would move west near the shore of central Guangdong.

Another storm, Haikui, was gradually moving toward the coastal areas of eastern China. Coupled with the influence of Saola, parts of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces would see strong winds and heavy rains, according to a website run by China Meteorological Administration. By Thursday night, some 1,00,000 people living in dangerous areas in Fujian were relocated to other safer places.

Saola passed just south of Taiwan on Wednesday before turning to mainland China, with the storm’s outer bands hitting the island’s southern cities with torrential rain. The typhoon also lashed the Philippines earlier this week, displacing tens of thousands of people in the northern part of the islands because of flooding.

In recent months, China had some of the heaviest rains and deadliest flooding in years across various regions, with scores killed, including in outlying mountainous parts of the capital Beijing.