Typhoon kills 55 people and charts course for HK
Typhoon kills 55 people and charts course for HK
HONG KONG (Reuters): A typhoon was bearing down on Hong Kong on Thursday after ripping through the northern Philippines and Taiwan, killing at least 55 people in landslides and freak electrocutions and leaving over 30 missing.
Most of the deaths were in the Philippines, including 34 people who were buried in landslides in the mountain resort city of Baguio and adjacent Benguet province.
Twenty were electrocuted as live wires met flood waters. More than 70 people were injured and dozens were reported missing.
A Taiwan fishing boat named Shan Yu Shing was reported missing along with its seven crew -- five Chinese and two Taiwan nationals -- after it was caught by the typhoon off the northernmost Philippine island of Batanes.
Typhoon Utor, one of the most powerful storms in the area in years, battered a wide area of the main Philippine island of Luzon on Wednesday with winds gusting up to 170 km per hour before it moved into the South China Sea early on Thursday.
Hong Kong hoisted typhoon signal number eight northeast at 7.30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. Jakarta time), meaning winds with a mean speed of 100 km per hour or more are expected from the northeast.
The local observatory said the typhoon was expected to make landfall within 100 km of Hong Kong on Friday morning and the number eight signal would stay in effect throughout the night.
At 7 p.m. (6 p.m. Jakarta time), the center of the typhoon was estimated to be about 290 km east-southeast of the territory of seven million people and was forecast to move northwest at about 22 kph towards the coast of China's densely populated Guangdong province.
"It is now headed towards southern China and bearing down on Hong Kong," weather bureau forecaster Leny Ruiz told Reuters. Supermarkets in Hong Kong were packed with shoppers stocking up on food and other essentials and some schools sent younger students home early. Video rental shops did a booming business.
Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways, already suffering from a labor dispute with its pilots, said it would cancel or defer up to 20 flights which had been scheduled to arrive after 8 p.m..
It also said flights departing after 6 p.m. could face significant delays because of the typhoon. Taiwan's China Airlines said it would cancel seven flights from Hong Kong to Taipei and Kaohsiung.
Many public events scheduled for Thursday evening and Friday have been canceled, while some public venues have also closed.
Water neck deep
The storm caused widespread flooding in the northern Philippine provinces, hitting 55 towns and about 2,700 villages, with some of the flood water neck deep, police said.
More than 10,000 people fled to evacuation centers and over 200 houses were damaged. Soldiers and police were using rubber boats to rescue people from villages cut off by the floods.
Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor said he was still awaiting a full report on the extent of damage to agriculture.
"It's too early to tell but, off-hand, we don't expect damage to our rice crops because we have just started planting the main crop," Montemayor said on local radio.
"Our main worry is the damage to our corn production and to our fishponds," he said.
The storm hit rice-growing provinces in Luzon, the Philippines' most populous island, but appeared to have largely spared the coconut-producing Bicol region south of Manila.
In a freak accident, an army colonel and a companion were crushed to death in Baguio when a tree was uprooted by heavy winds and smashed down on their car, officials said.
"Please, help us...If the roads are not cleared, people here will starve," Baguio Mayor Bernardo Vergara said in a local radio broadcast.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year. The storm also brought heavy rain to Taiwan, flooding houses and farms, forcing government offices and schools to close and briefly halting domestic air and land traffic.
A 51-year-old man drowned and six people injured. Utor is the region's second typhoon in two weeks following Typhoon Chebi, which swept through Taiwan and China killing at least 87 people and injuring 116. Chebi also caused an estimated T$635 million in damage to Taiwan's agriculture sector.
At least 11 people were killed and three reported missing in Vietnam earlier this week after floods triggered by heavy rain from Typhoon Durian swept several mountainous provinces.