Nuri, downgraded from a typhoon, made landfall yesterday in southern Guangdong at 10:10 p.m. local time, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. Strong winds toppled an expressway traffic sign in the provincial capital of Guangzhou City that crushed a passing van and killed three people, it said.
Earlier, Nuri passed directly over Hong Kong packing winds of 95 kilometers (59 miles) per hour. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Hong Kong's biggest carrier, and other airlines canceled or delayed 188 flights to and from the city yesterday, while Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. canceled trading sessions.
Hong Kong raised the No. 9 Storm Signal for the first time in five years as Nuri approached and eight people were treated for injuries in the city as the storm felled trees and knocked over walls, the government said in a situation report.
The city now has a No. 3 Storm Signal and Nuri is located about 180 kilometers west-northwest of Hong Kong and forecast to move west at about 16 kilometers per hour across Guangdong, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Hong Kong Observatory, which said the system has been downgraded to a tropical depression. Winds are forecast at between 41 and 62 kilometers per hour.
Olympic Events
Hong Kong is frequently hit by typhoons and tropical storms during the northern hemisphere's summer. Tropical Storm Kammuri pummeled the city earlier this month, forcing schools and markets to close and delaying the delivery of horses for equestrian events at the Olympics.
The city's Olympic equestrian events were spared the worst of Nuri, with the last showjumping event successfully concluded late on Aug. 21 as the weather began to worsen.
Guangdong provincial authorities ordered the evacuation of 318,000 people as Nuri approached, Xinhua reported. Torrential rain is forecast over the weekend in western Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta as the system moves northwest, ebbing gradually, it added. The typhoon is headed toward Macau, where flights and ferries were also canceled.
Nuri's winds slowed from as high as 176 kilometers per hour when it slammed into the northern Philippines as a typhoon earlier this week, leaving at least seven people dead.
Nuri is the name of a blue-crowned parakeet in Malaysia, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists names used for tropical storms and typhoons formed in the northwest Pacific.
