The most violent typhoon of the past 18 years in Macau has caused at least five dead and 153 wounded on Wednesday 23rd August, leaving a trail of destruction to buildings and communication in the city.
The Portuguese consul in Macau and Hong Kong, Vitor Sereno, told Lusa that “none of those who died are Portuguese citizens,” and added that he did not know until now the existence of Portuguese among the wounded.
Most of the city remained without electricity at 21.30 (14:30 hrs in Lisbon), which led the Conde de São Januário Hospital Center, the only public hospital in Macao, to use the “backup generator” for the supply of Emergency lighting and electricity, thus ensuring basic services. ”
At 09:00 hrs (14.00 hrs. in Lisbon), the Meteorological and Geophysical Services of Macau issued the signal 8 of tropical storm, when the Hato was about 110 kms southeast of Macau, heading for the west coast of the province of Guangdong, China.
For the first time ever since the beginning of the year, Tropical Storm Sign 8 in Macao has been hoisted, forcing schools, public services and transportation to stop. The connections between the Macao peninsula and the island of Taipa, the air and sea services between the territory and the outside were suspended and the borders closed.
At 11:30 am (04:30 hrs), Tropical Storm Sign 10, the maximum of the scale, was hoisted, which had not happened since 1999. At that time, Typhoon Hato was about 50 kms southeast of Macau. The typhoon’s intensity caused a power outage that partially affected communications services, which have not yet been restored. At 19.00 hrs, the Macau Civil Protection Operations Center (COPC) announced the reopening of the bridges linking the city to Taipa and the resumption of sea and air links.
In the same message, the COPC reported that the damaged facilities at the Outer Harbour and Pac On maritime terminal in Taipa had not yet been reopened.
By 17:50 (10:50), COPC had recorded 207 incidents. The Inner Harbour and Green Island areas have experienced flooding, added the COPC.
The storm signals were all disabled by 9:30 p.m. (14:30 p.m.), according to the Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau.