Hong Kong’s observatory warned that Mangkhut would pass 100 kilometers south of the city as it raised the storm alert to its highest level.
/AFP
Typhoon Mangkhut rocked Hong Kong en route to mainland China on Sunday, injuring scores and sending skyscrapers swaying, after killing at least 30 people in the Philippines and ripping a swathe of destruction through its agricultural heartland.
The world’s biggest storm this year left large expanses in the north of the main Philippine main island of Luzon underwater as fierce winds tore trees from the ground and rain unleashed dozens of landslides.
In Hong Kong weather authorities issued their maximum alert for the storm, which battered the city with gusts of more than 230 kilometers per hour and left over 100 injured, according to government figures.
As the storm passed south of Hong Kong, trees were snapped in half and roads blocked, while some windows in tower blocks were smashed and skyscrapers swayed, as they are designed to do in intense gales.
The Philippines was just beginning to count the cost of the typhoon, but police confirmed at least 30 were killed when it smashed into northern Luzon on Saturday.
In the town of Baggao it demolished houses, tore off roofs and downed power lines. Some roads were cut off by landslides and many remained submerged.