(Bloomberg) — Super Typhoon Yagi left at least two people dead in Hainan island, after what’s likely the strongest storm to hit southern China in a decade made landfall.
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As many as 92 were injured in storm-related incidents, Xinhua News Agency reported citing local authorities on Saturday. The typhoon made landfall in China on Friday, first striking Hainan and later Guangdong province.
Yagi — known as Makar in China — has maximum sustained winds of 125 knots (232 kilometers) per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The system is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane, which is considered a major storm that has the capacity to inflict catastrophic damage.
The typhoon, which earlier skirted Hong Kong, is around east-southeast of Hanoi and forecast to move toward the northern part of Vietnam and weaken gradually, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
Almost 420,000 residents in Hainan were evacuated ahead of Yagi, according to Xinhua. Over 570,000 residents in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have been relocated, Xinhua said in a separate report.
The storm was expected to be the strongest to strike China’s southern coast since 2014, Xinhua reported on Thursday, citing a meeting of government departments including the China Meteorological Association.
All flights inbound and outbound of Haikou city in Hainan before 12pm on Sunday will be canceled, Cailian reported. China’s government allocated 200 million yuan ($28.2 million) to Hainan and Guangdong province for disaster relief, Cailian said in a separate report.
Authorities in Guangdong province and neighboring Guangxi made preparations this week to protect crops including rice and sugar from the impact of the typhoon, according to local governments. They urged people to clear ditches to drain flooded rice fields and strengthen greenhouses.
The storm hit the Philippines earlier in the week, killing people and forcing thousands to flee before moving into the South China Sea. The typhoon then tracked toward southern China, dumping rain across Hong Kong.
Hong Kong scrapped trading of its $4.9 trillion stock market on Friday after the weather bureau prolonged a storm warning, in what was likely the final time a typhoon forces a trading halt. The financial hub will be ending its decades-long practice of shutting markets during severe storms from Sept. 23.
The Hong Kong Observatory lowered its storm warning to Signal 3 and subsequently to a strong monsoon, down from Typhoon Signal 8 — the third-highest alert. Hong Kong International Airport, one of the world’s top passenger and air cargo hubs, was largely operating as normal with 20% of flights canceled or rescheduled.
–With assistance from Dominic Lau, Danny Lee, Luz Ding, Sangmi Cha, Olivia Tam, Hallie Gu, Foster Wong, Tian Ying and Denise Wee.
(Recasts with deaths and injuries in Hainan in first paragraph)
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