BEIJING (AP) – A typhoon was headed toward southern China and Hong Kong after bringing record-breaking winds and leaving one dead in Taiwan.
Typhoon Koinu was weakening as it headed west across the South China Sea toward China’s Guangdong province, the China Meteorological Administration said.
It was forecast to turn into a tropical storm by today and turn to the southwest, taking it over waters that parallel China’s southeastern coast tomorrow.
The storm was about 370 kilometres (km) from Hong Kong yesterday morning and moving at about 10km per hour, the city government’s Hong Kong Observatory said. Hong Kong was hit by heavy rains
about one month ago that killed at least two people and caused widespread flooding.
Ferry service was suspended in parts of Guangdong province, and the city of Guangzhou cancelled some flights and trains.
Koinu, which means puppy in Japanese, brought pounding rain and wind gusts to southern and central Taiwan on Thursday, downing trees and damaging buildings. An 84-year-old woman was killed by flying glass in Taichung city and about 400 others were injured around the island, Taiwan’s fire department said.
A weather monitoring station on Taiwan’s outlying Orchid Island measured a gust of 342.7km per hour (kph) at 9.53pm on Wednesday, as well as sustained winds that reached 198.7kph at 9.40pm.
The device measuring the wind speeds broke shortly afterward, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.
