Hong Kong, Shenzhen deluged by heaviest rain on report

AFP

The Asian monetary hub of Hong Kong was drenched on Friday by the heaviest rain since information started 140 years in the past, killing one particular person and injuring 83, media reported, as unusually moist climate brought on by typhoons introduced extra disruption to southern China.

Videos confirmed cascades of water surging down steep hillsides within the former British colony, flooding waist-deep in slender streets, and inundating malls, metro stations and tunnels.

The excessive climate additionally introduced chaos to the close by Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, a tech hub of greater than 17.7 million folks, with enterprise and transport hyperlinks throughout the economically vital Pearl River Delta severely hit.

The torrential rain was introduced by Haikui, a hurricane that made landfall within the Chinese province of Fujian on Tuesday. Although it weakened to a tropical melancholy its slow-moving clouds have dumped enormous volumes of precipitation on areas nonetheless soaked by rain from an excellent hurricane every week earlier.

Hong Kong’s climate bureau issued its highest “black” rainstorm warning, and mentioned greater than 200 mm of rain was recorded on Hong Kong’s primary island, the Kowloon district and the northeastern a part of the town’s New Territories from late on Thursday.

The metropolis’s chief, John Lee, mentioned he was very involved in regards to the extreme flooding in most components of the territory and had instructed all departments to reply with “all-out efforts”.

Hong Kong authorities shut colleges on Friday and advised staff to remain at dwelling. The metropolis’s inventory trade was additionally shuttered.

Eric Chan, secretary for administration, mentioned the town’s transport community was “severely disrupted” and an “extreme conditions situation” can be prolonged to midnight on Friday.

MTR Corp, which operates the town’s rail community, mentioned at the least one line was shut whereas others had been working with delays. One video clip confirmed metro staff wading waist-deep in a station.

Some roads had been partly washed, together with a primary path to the town’s southern seashores. A automobile was swallowed up by a metres extensive pothole when one part of highway collapsed, social media footage confirmed.

Rescue staff took one particular person to hospital who was useless on arrival, a tv news channel reported.

The metropolis’s cross-harbour tunnel, one in every of primary arteries connecting Hong Kong island to Kowloon, was inundated and a shopping center within the Chai Wan district was half-submerged.

Some passenger and cargo clearance operations at two border factors between Hong Kong and Shenzhen had been suspended resulting from flooding.

Macau ferry operators in Hong Kong mentioned a number of sailings can be suspended to the playing hub.

More than 100 pigs in an space close to the border with Shenzhen drowned in a flood, media reported.

GUANGDONG SWAMPED

The China Meteorological Administration mentioned heavy rain would fall till early Saturday on the central and southwestern areas of Guangdong province.

All colleges, some subway stations and places of work within the Guangdong metropolis of Shenzhen had been shut on Friday.

Residents holding onto security traces stepped gingerly by means of knee-deep water within the metropolis of 17.7 million folks, movies from state media confirmed.

A rainfall log confirmed 465.5 mm of rain fell in Shenzhen over a 12-hour interval, the best since information started in 1952.

Daily rainfall within the metropolis within the Pearl River Delta linking Hong Kong to China’s mainland was anticipated to exceed 500 mm, Shenzhen media mentioned.

Videos confirmed each the exit and entry areas of the Shenzhen railway station had been flooded, with trains connecting the town and the provincial capital of Guangzhou suspended. About 100 folks had been stranded on the station.

Schools in 10 districts of Guangzhou had been suspended for the day or needed to open late, whereas the town of Zhuhai close to Macau warned of waterlogging and landslides.

The industrial metropolis of Dongguan north of Shenzhen reported its heaviest rain in 15 years.