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Typhoon Kalmaegi closes Hong Kong stock market Typhoon Kalmaegi hits Chinese island after Hong Kong shutdown
(about 2 hours later)
Strong winds and heavy rain hit Hong Kong on Tuesday as a typhoon headed to the south of the financial hub, disrupting business and closing the stock market for at least part of the morning. A powerful typhoon has hit China's Hainan Island after sweeping past Hong Kong where it disrupted flights and forced the closure of the stock market and container ports.
The Hong Kong Observatory raised cyclone warning, level to eight, on a scale of one to 10, on Monday and said it expected to lower it between 10am (0200 GMT) and noon as Typhoon Kalmaegi moves away from the city and heads for the Chinese island of Hainan. Typhoon Kalmaegi buffeted Hong Kong with gusts of up to 98mph (159kph) as it barrelled west, injuring 29 people, felling scores of trees and causing floods and a landslide.
Schools, businesses and non-essential government services will stay closed while storm the signal 8 remains in place. The Hong Kong Observatory issued the number-eight cyclone warning the third in a five-tier system late on Monday, triggering the closure of schools and businesses. It was lowered to a number-three strong wind signal late on Tuesday morning, allowing the stock market to reopen.
Flights in and out of Hong Kong were delayed, affecting thousands of passengers, with the impact expected to last well into Tuesday morning. In Hainan, more than 90,000 people were evacuated from the east coast of the island as local governments were told to prepare for "disaster-relief operations", the official Xinhua news agency said.
At 8 am, Typhoon Kalmaegi was centred about 400 km south-west of Hong Kong and was forecast to move west-northwest at about 30 kph (19mph). China Southern Airlines said it would cancel all flights to and from the provincial capital of Haikou, while ferry services and trains to the mainland across the 18 mile Qiongzhou Strait were suspended.
The China Meteorological Administration had an "orange" alert in place, the second-most severe in the nation's four-tier weather warning system.
An earlier statement, which carried the most severe "red" alert, said that up to 400cm of rain was expected in some coastal areas.
In Hong Kong, authorities were clearing debris and getting the city back up and running, including clearing a backlog of hundreds of flights that were delayed or cancelled.
The government said there were 128 reports of fallen trees and that some parts of the city were flooded, with one report of a landslide.
"Although Kalmaegi is moving away, occasional gales will still affect the south-western part and high ground of Hong Kong," the Hong Kong Observatory said.
Television news footage showed uprooted trees, overturned bus stop signs and damaged bamboo construction scaffolding that had been torn down by the strong winds.
Twenty-nine people had sought treatment for typhoon-related injuries, the city's Hospital Authority told .
The Hong Kong stock exchange announced it would open in the afternoon after it cancelled its morning trading session.
Typhoon Kalmaegi swept out of the Philippines on Monday after causing chest-deep floods in some rural areas but leaving the storm-prone country largely unscathed.
Six people were killed after a passenger ferry sank in the central Philippines on Saturday amid rough weather as the storm approached, the navy said.