Typhoon Kai-Tak

Typhoon Kai-Tak affects 1.26 million people in south China – 500,000 evacuated in 3 provinces

Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports in China Friday with transport services being suspended as Typhoon Kai-Tak battered southern regions of the country

Desdemona Despair,

19 August 2012.

Kai-Tak, the 13th tropical storm of the year, whirled into the Huguang township in Guangdong province around 12.30 a.m. Friday, bringing downpours and gales, Xinhua reported.

Off the eastern Zhanjiang coast, the violent weather triggered waves as high as four metres.

In Zhanjiang city, trees and billboards could be seen scattered along the roads while most of the shops and restaurants remained closed.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at an airport in Beihai city in Guangxi Zhuang region, after 16 flights linking Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Changsha areas were cancelled.

Sources from the Maritime Search and Rescue Center of Qinzhou city said, six people were still trapped after their ship was marooned in Qinzhou Port, Thursday evening.

Helicopter, tugs and patrol boats were dispatched to the site for rescuing the trapped people, said the city authorities.

According to fishery departments of the coastal cities of Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangchenggang, as of 1 p.m., more than 10,000 fishing boats had been called back to harbours for shelter, and over 40,000 fishermen and seafood farmers have gone ashore to avoid heavy rains, gales and waves.

Elsewhere, the typhoon also led to delay and cancellation of 14 incoming flights and seven outgoing flights in Meilan International Airport, in Haikou, capital of the Hainan province.

Also, in Hainan, where the heavy rains lashed, 23 flights had been cancelled and 18 others delayed at the Sanya Phoenix International Airport in Sanya City at 10.30 a.m., leaving 3,000 passengers helpless. […]

Typhoon Kai-Tak kills nine in Vietnam

Terra Daily,

19 August, 2012

At least nine people were killed, thousands of homes damaged and swathes of farmland flooded as Typhoon Kai-Tak swept across northern Vietnam, authorities said Sunday.

The storm, which made landfall late Friday, brought strong winds and heavy rains that inundated several densely populated communities including part of the capital Hanoi.

Five people were swept away by floodwaters while one woman died when a landslide buried her house while she was sleeping in Bac Giang province, according to the government's central committee on flood and storm control.

A taxi driver was killed by a toppled tree while two people were electrocuted by a falling electricity cable, it said.

Nearly 12,000 houses were damaged and 23,000 hectares (56,800 acres) of cropland were flooded, according to the committee.

In Hanoi, about 200 large trees were uprooted and part of the city remained under water early Sunday.

The Vietnamese army had put 20,000 soldiers backed by helicopters, rescue boats and canoes on standby for rescue operations, but only a small number of them were deployed.

More than 11,000 boats, including several hundred used by tourists at the UNESCO world heritage site Halong Bay, were ordered to stay close to the shore.

The storm, which earlier killed four people in the Philippines, was packing winds of about 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour when it slammed into Vietnam, but it was downgraded to a tropical depression on Saturday.