Typhoon Vicente Intensifies, Killing 3 In South China And Causing Mass Damages In Hong Kong

Typhoon Vicente hit Hong Kong with strong gale-force winds and torrential rains which made the Hong Kong Observatory hoist the No. 10 tropical cyclone signal overnight. Officials called this the strongest typhoon to hit the city in the past decade. In China, three people were reported dead and five went missing after Vicente caused a landfall over the city of Taishan in south China's Guangdong province.

The gale winds which blew at approximately 87 miles per hour remained strong overnight injuring scores of people and destroying land and property. AP reported that Ferry, bus and train services in Hong Kong were suspended or ran at reduced capacity, the port and schools were closed, and 44 passenger flights were cancelled. More than 270 flights were delayed.

The report also said that Almost 140 people sought medical treatment and 268 people took refuge in storm shelters, officials said. Seventy-one people remained in hospital including one who was in a serious condition.

As the day set in, typhoon Vicente started veering away from the city and the Hong Kong Observatory again issued a No. 8 signal as on Monday evening. The signal continued to be hoisted until afternoon which meant that the financial markets, schools, government and business services all have to remained shut. However, for the latter half of Monday morning, the signals were lifted and the stock markets re-opened.

Hong Kong was not the only one affected by the typhoon. Vicente caused torrential rains and thunderstorms in South China on Monday. On early Tuesday morning Vicente caused a landfall in China killing three people while six people were reported missing, according to Xinhua news agency.

The meteorological station of Haikou, capital of Hainan in South China, issued a red alert for the storms on Tuesday, the highest warning level in China's four-tier color-coded weather warning system, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Thirty-two flights had been cancelled as of Tuesday morning at the Phoenix International Airport and all shipping lines across the Qiongzhou Strait located between Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong province and Hainan Island, have been closed since Sunday night.

The storm is not expected to move northwestward at a speed of 15 to 20 km per hour as it weakens, the meteorological station said to Xinhua news agency