Typhoon Prapiroon made landfall in Guangdong on Thursday night and moved
northwest to Guangxi on Friday.
Although downgraded to a tropical storm, it devastated most areas in the
southeastern parts of Guangxi after its arrival early in the morning.
As at 10 am on Friday more than 1 million people in Guangxi were affected by
Prapiroon, with one death in the region, according to the local flood control
and drought relief office.
The autonomous region had to evacuate about 220,000 people to safety. More
than 840 houses and 3,461 hectares of farmland were destroyed.
In Guangdong, where rainfall is forecast in the coming days, flights, ships
and trains to the island province of Hainan resumed on Friday. Prapiroon forced
the cancellation of 49 flights at Guangzhou airport on Thursday night, but
services had resumed by Friday at noon.
Most areas in western Guangdong were hit hard by Prapiroon. Eight people were
confirmed dead in Yangjiang and Maoming. More than 800 houses in Yangjiang and
3,305 in Maoming were destroyed.
The two cities' total economic losses were estimated at more than 1.3 billion
yuan (US$162 million).
In Shenzhen and Zhuhai three people were killed in the typhoon.
In Guangzhou, a great number of trees along urban streets were destroyed, but
there was no report of casualties.
Rescuers with the Hainan Provincial Maritime Salvage Bureau rescued nine
Vietnamese sailors who were stranded on their cargo ship near the coast of
Changjiang County on Thursday.
In Hong Kong, 3,000 passengers were stranded at the airport on Thursday as
over 800 flights were affected, according to the Hong Kong Airport Authority.
Prapiroon also caused the suspension of ferry services from Hong Kong to
Macao as well as train services between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.
Prapiroon, named after the Thai rain god, is the region's eighth major storm
of the season. It comes in the wake of last week's Typhoon Kaemi, which killed
at least 35 people in China and left dozens missing in flooding and
landslides.
