by Donald Wood
Last updated: 2:15 PM ET, Wed August 23, 2017
Heavy rainfall and fierce winds from Typhoon Hato resulted in at least three deaths and hundreds of canceled flights Wednesday.
According to The Associated Press, Typhoon Hato passed within 40 miles of Hong Kong before making landfall around noon local time in the city of Zhuhai in the neighboring province of Guangdong.
The typhoon forced thousands of people to evacuate parts of the mainland coast to avoid the flooding associated with the storm. With waves of up to 33 feet high reported in the South China Sea, ships in the impacted region sailed out of the path of the storm or returned to harbor.
For travelers, train services were canceled, ferry operators halted voyages and an estimated 450 flights were canceled at Hong Kong International Airport. China Southern Airlines, China Eastern and Shenzhen Airlines also reported over 2,000 combined delays Wednesday, according to FlightAware.com.
In the popular tourist destination of Macau, the casino and hospital lost power. Thankfully, the medical facility was able to switch to backup electrical generators and no further issues were reported.
Typhoon Hato additionally brought maximum sustained winds of 78 miles per hour with gusts of up to 129 miles per hour on some outlying islands. The winds uprooted trees and blew out windows on skyscrapers, which resulted in broken glass falling to the streets below.
Macau's Government Information Bureau revealed that the three men killed in the storms were aged 30, 45 and 62. Local news outlets are also reporting that there are at least two other people missing.
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