Typhoon Hato yesterday left three dead in Macau as it brought chaos and destruction to the enclave after sweeping through neighboring Hong Kong, where one man also died.
Local media showed severe flooding that left cars underwater and people swimming in Macau’s streets, with the territory’s mega-casinos running on backup generators.
Three men aged 30 to 65 died, the Macau government said, while two people were missing. One of the men died after being injured by a wall that blew down, another fell from a fourth-floor terrace and the last was a Chinese tourist hit by a truck.
Photo: Reuters
The Chinese-language Apple Daily showed footage of people swimming through muddy water in what are usually roads, and being swept off their feet by winds.
The sprawling Venetian casino resort was on backup power and without air conditioning or proper lighting, according to one source.
One employee of Sands, which owns the Venetian and the Parisian, said power had been out across the whole of Macau, but was beginning to return.
“Because many guests come in the summer, a lot of them have been stuck in the major resorts and casinos,” the employee said.
“All transportations — air, ground, sea — have halted, so customers who have checked out cannot leave yet,” the employee said.
Residents took to social media to complain about the power and mobile phone network outages.
Brian Chan, 31, said authorities had failed to give enough notice of the impending storm and were not properly prepared, describing the territory as “totally lost” in the typhoon.
The water supply was also limited and 50 flights canceled from its international airport.
By evening, parts of Macau were still without power.
Hurricane winds and heavy rain had earlier hit Hong Kong, leaving an 83-year-old man dead after he fell into the sea, police said, adding that more than 80 were injured.
The typhoon shut down the stock market and forced the cancelation of hundreds of flights in the worst storm the territory has seen for five years.
Meteorologists raised Hong Kong’s most severe Typhoon 10 warning as the storm hit, only the third time in the past 20 years.
The typhoon passed as close as 60km and made landfall at noon in the southern mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.
Thousands of people were evacuated on Tuesday in parts of south China in preparation for the typhoon’s arrival, Xinhua news agency said.
Hato sent meters-high waves crashing into Hong Kong’s shorelines, with flooding knee-deep in some areas. Swathes of marine rubbish washed up on beaches and in coastal residential areas, including white globs of palm oil that have been coming ashore since a massive spillage at sea earlier this month.
Gusts of up to 207kph brought flying debris, tearing down trees and scaffolding and smashing skyscraper windows. Fallen trees cut off roads to parts of the territory.
More than 400 flights were canceled, with flag carrier Cathay Pacific (國泰航空) axing most of its departures until 5pm.
As the storm moved away, Hong Kong Observatory gradually reduced its warning signal to a Typhoon 1, the lowest level, although it said there would still be strong offshore winds and the rain continued.
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