Schools and the stock market were closed in Hong Kong yesterday as Typhoon Talim sideswiped the territory and headed toward landfall on China’s mainland and the island province of Hainan.
Safety alerts were issued for residents and tourists who flock to the region’s beaches during the summer, urging them to remain in safe places away from the threat of floods or landslides.
China Central Television (CCTV) showed footage of typhoon-swept winds and waves hitting an oil platform about 200km offshore.
Photo: AFP
More than 9,800 workers had been evacuated from such facilities as of noon yesterday, CCTV said.
In Macau, across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, schools halted classes and public transportation was shut down, CCTV said.
In a sign of the typhoon’s power and range, residents outside the city of Fuzhou in China’s Fujian Province to the north were trapped in high waters as heavy rain fell, CCTV reported.
About 1,000 villagers were affected and more than 50 needed to be evacuated, CCTV said.
In Hong Kong some government and ferry services were halted and various events were postponed. The territory’s airport authority said 16 flights were canceled.
The Hong Kong Observatory early yesterday raised a No. 8 typhoon signal, the third-highest warning under the territory’s weather system. It was the first warning of its kind issued this year.
As Talim — with maximum sustained winds of 140kph — gradually moved away from Hong Kong in the afternoon, the observatory downgraded its warning.
China’s National Meteorological Center forecast the typhoon would make landfall in Guangdong Province and Hainan Province last night before entering the Gulf of Tonkin and striking land again in the Guangxi region today.
Talim is expected to weaken tomorrow in Vietnam, it said.
However, Vietnamese authorities said they were preparing to evacuate about 30,000 people from the areas forecast to be hardest hit in Quang Ninh and Hai Phong provinces from yesterday afternoon.
Additional reporting by AFP
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