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Super Typhoon Mangkhut slams South China

Updated: Sep 17,2018 9:11 PM     Xinhua

GUANGZHOU — Four people have been confirmed dead, and 542 million yuan ($78.9 million) of insurance claims have been requested on Sept 17 in Guangdong as Super Typhoon Mangkhut ravaged the southern Chinese province.

Mangkhut landed at 5 pm on Sept 16 on the coast of the city of Jiangmen in Guangdong, packing winds up to 162 km per hour, according to the provincial meteorological station.

Three people were killed by falling trees in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, while another person died from collapsing construction materials in the city of Dongguan, according to Guangdong’s disaster relief authorities.

On Sept 16, more than 3.11 million people had been relocated, and over 49,000 fishing boats were called back to port in the province.

According to the Guangdong insurance regulatory commission, more than 30,000 insurance claims have been received, including nearly 27,000 claims reporting vehicle damages with a combined loss of 233 million yuan, and another 1,100 claims reporting agricultural damage worth 105 million.

Mangkhut also triggered the catastrophe loss index in Guangdong, which is expected to pay about 75 million yuan for the losses incurred in the cities of Yangjiang and Maoming. The amount of compensation in other typhoon-affected areas is yet to be determined.

The administration of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge dispatched 83 employees to patrol the bridge and supporting facilities. It has withstood the test of the super typhoon, which had a maximum wind speed of 55 meters per second, according to on-site supervision data.

The National Meteorological Center said Mangkhut has entered neighboring Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, moving northwestward at a speed of 20 km per hour on Sept 17.

In Guangxi, the lives of about 69,400 people were affected, and about 45,000 people have been relocated, according to the regional civil affairs bureau.

The local hydrological and water resources bureau said 12 rivers in the autonomous region are running over the alert levels due to heavy downpours brought by the typhoon and are expected to rise even higher, leading to possible floods in the next 24 hours.

Nuclear power plants run by China General Nuclear Power Corporation in Guangdong and Guangxi have withstood the test of the typhoon, the corporation said late on Sept 16.

The government of Southwest China’s Yunnan province has initiated emergency responses and ordered weather, civil affairs and mining safety departments to take precautions against the typhoon.

The weather bureau in East China’s Shandong also forecast widespread rainfall from Sept 17 to Sept 19.