Typhoon Mangkhut barreled into southern China on Sunday, killing two people after lashing the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rain that left at least 64 dead and dozens more feared buried in a landslide.
More than 2.4 million people had been relocated in southern China’s Guangdong province by Sunday evening to flee the massive typhoon and nearly 50,000 fishing boats were called back to port, state media reported.
The gambling enclave of Macau closed casinos for the first time and the Hong Kong Observatory warned people to stay away from the Victoria Harbour landmark, where storm surges battered the sandbag-reinforced waterfront.
Mangkhut made landfall in the Guangdong city of Taishan at 5 pm, packing wind speeds of 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. State television broadcaster CGTN reported that surging waves flooded a seaside hotel in the city of Shenzhen.
Authorities in southern China had issued a red alert, the most severe warning, as the national meteorological centre said the densely populated region would face a "severe test caused by wind and rain" and urged officials to prepare for possible disasters.
Hundreds of flights were canceled. All high-speed and some normal rail services in Guangdong and Hainan provinces were also halted, the China Railway Guangzhou Group Co. said.
The heavy rains brought storm surges of 3 meters (10 feet) around Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Security Minister John Lee Ka-chiu urged residents to prepare for the worst.
Because Mangkhut will bring winds and rains of extraordinary speeds, scope and severity, our preparation and response efforts will be greater than in the past. Each department must have a sense of crisis, make a comprehensive assessment and plan, and prepare for the worst.John Lee Ka-chiu, Hong Kong Security Minister
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific said all of its flights would be cancelled between 2:30 am Sunday and 4 am Monday. The city of Shenzhen also cancelled all flights between Sunday and early Monday morning.
In Macau, next door to Hong Kong, casinos were ordered to close from 11pm Saturday, the first time such action was taken in the city, the South China Morning Post reported.
In Macau’s inner harbour district on Sunday, the water level reached 1.5 meters (5 feet) and was expected to rise further. The district was one of the most affected by floods from Typhoon Hato last year, which left 10 people dead.
In the northern Philippines, about 40 to 50 people, mostly small-scale miners and their families, were feared to have been trapped by a landslide in the far-flung village of Ucab in Itogon town in Benguet province, Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said by phone.
The Philippines appeared to have been spared the high number of casualties many had feared.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened villages and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines. A massive evacuation ahead of Mangkhut helped lessen potential casualties, with about 87,000 people evacuating from high-risk areas, officials said.
Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde told the Associated Press that 20 people died in the Cordillera mountain region, four in nearby Nueva Vizcaya province and another outside of the two regions. Three more deaths were reported in northeastern Cagayan province, where the typhoon made landfall.
The typhoon struck at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in the Philippines' northern breadbasket, prompting farmers to scramble to save what they could of their crops, Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba said.
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