Typhoon veers from Hong Kong, hits southern China

[yuiyoshida]

Source: AP

HONG KONG (AP) — The year's most powerful typhoon slammed into southern China on Sunday evening, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, shutting down shipping and putting a nuclear power plant on alert after pummeling parts of the Philippines and Taiwan with heavy rains and fierce winds.

Typhoon Usagi veered away from Hong Kong at the last minute and made landfall northeast of the former British colony. Forecasters had warned earlier that it posed a "severe threat" to the southern Chinese city.

Usagi — Japanese for rabbit — was classified as a severe typhoon, packing sustained winds of 175 kilometers (109 miles) per hour, with gusts of up to 213 kph (132 mph).

The storm was downgraded from a super typhoon on Saturday — with its sustained winds falling below 241 kilometers (150 miles) per hour — as it passed through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan, likely sparing residents in both places from the most destructive winds near its eye.

In the Philippines, Usagi left at least two people dead and two others missing, while in Taiwan nine people were hurt by falling trees on Kinmen island off China's coast.

Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1315513/typhoon-veers-hong-kong-hits-southern-china?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[grahamhgreen]

1. Nuclear alert. Ugh

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Typhoon Usagi kills at least 25 people in China

Typhoon Usagi has killed at least 25 people in Guangdong province of south China, the government has said.

Winds of up to 180 km/h (110 mph) were recorded in some areas, toppling trees and blowing cars off roads. Its victims drowned or were hit by debris.

The storm has affected 3.5 million people on the Chinese mainland.
...
More than 80,000 people were moved to safety in Fujian province and the authorities have deployed at least 50,000 relief workers, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Power supplies in many parts of the province and in Guangdong have been cut off.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24193201

Nasty, but given its strength, if the final toll is just 25 it could have been worse.

[yuiyoshida]

4. Understood there were at least three people killed in the Philippines

None in Taiwan that I have heard about. 28 total? Maybe.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Landslides kill 20 in Philippine provinces weakened by typhoon Usagi

Torrential monsoon rains have hit the north-west Philippines, triggering landslides and killing 20 people in areas already weakened by a powerful typhoon, and raising the death toll to 47 from storms across Asia.

Philippine officials said soldiers and villagers were also searching for at least seven people missing in mountainside villages hit by the landslides on Monday in the province of Zambales.

In China, where typhoon Usagi struck after passing by the Philippines, officials said the storm killed 25 people in the southern province of Guangdong, 13 of them in the city of Shanwei where it struck the coast late on Sunday.

Two people drowned when a passenger boat capsized in north-east Aurora Province in the Philippines.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/23/landslides-kill-20-philippines-typhoon-usagi

I suspect there will be more reports to come.

[yuiyoshida]

6. Okay, thanks for that update..

Nothing from Taiwan? I know my friend in Taipei told me there was barely much rain, while Southern Taiwan got slammed and there was flooding. I have heard nothing much from there other than that.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Meanwhile, Typhoon "Giant Rubber Duckie" is heading toward Japan

http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/typhoon/