Typhoon Saola slams southern China
Typhoon Saola swept across southern China yesterday after tearing down trees and smashing windows in Hong Kong, although the megacity avoided a feared direct hit from one of the region's strongest storms in decades.
Tens of millions of people in the densely populated coastal areas of southern China had sheltered indoors on Friday ahead of the storm.
Saola had triggered Hong Kong's highest threat level on Friday evening -- issued only 16 times since World War II -- and registered winds of around 210 kilometres per hour at its peak.
It was downgraded before dawn yesterday as the typhoon passed the city and tracked towards coastal areas of mainland China -- where it weakened into a severe tropical storm.
So far, Hong Kong has had no reported casualties and far less damage than that created by 2018's powerful Typhoon Mangkhut, but authorities warned people to stay away from the shoreline as Saola was still whipping up strong gales.
AFP journalists saw multiple fallen trees strewn across Hong Kong roads, broken windows, and crumpled scaffolding from under-construction buildings, while local media reported that solar panels had been ripped off rooftops.
The last storm to earn the city's highest typhoon alert, Mangkhut shredded trees and unleashed floods across the city, leaving more than 300 people injured in its wake.
In mainland China, it killed six people and impacted the lives of more than three million others.
Saola made landfall in the Chinese coastal city of Zhuhai, where workers on yesterday moved metal railings from roads and cleared sand whipped from a nearby beach.
By afternoon, it had moved west to the tourist island of Hailing in Guangdong province, bringing sustained winds at a speed of 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour.
Guangdong province downgraded its emergency response due to the weakened windspeed by afternoon.
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