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Four dead as typhoon smashes into Macau and Hong Kong
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A woman uses her phone while wearing a plastic poncho along Victoria Harbour during heavy winds and rain brought on by Typhoon Hato in Hong Kong on August 23, 2017. Typhoon Hato smashed into Hong Kong on August 23 with hurricane force winds and heavy rains in the worst storm the city has seen for five years, shutting down the stock market and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights. (Agence France -Presse/Anthony Wallace)
T
yphoon Hato left three dead in the gambling hub of Macau Wednesday as it brought chaos and destruction to the enclave after sweeping through neighbouring Hong Kong, where one man also died.
Local media showed severe flooding had left cars underwater and people swimming in Macau's city streets, with the territory's mega-casinos running on back-up generators.
Three men aged 30 to 65 died, the Macau government said, while two people were missing. One of the men died after being injured by a wall that blew down, another fell from a fourth floor terrace and the last was a Chinese tourist hit by a truck.
Apple Daily showed footage of people swimming through muddy water in what are usually roads, and being swept off their feet by winds.
The sprawling Venetian casino resort was on back-up power and without air conditioning or proper lighting, according to one source.
One employee of Sands, which owns the Venetian and the Parisian, said power had been out across the whole of Macau but was beginning to return.
"Because many guests come in the summer, a lot of them have been stuck in the major resorts and casinos," the employee said.
"All transportations -- air, ground, sea -- have halted, so customers who have checked out cannot leave yet."
Electricity was still down at the Grand Lisboa Wednesday afternoon, with the casino and restaurants there out of action, a staff member told AFP.
Residents took to social media to complain about city-wide power and mobile phone network outages.
Brian Chan, 31, said authorities had failed to give enough notice of the impending storm and were not properly prepared, describing the territory as "totally lost" in the typhoon.
The water supply was also limited, authorities said, and 50 flights cancelled from its international airport.
By evening, parts of Macau were still without power.
"Some have no tap water supply. The city looks like after an attack," Harald Bruning, editor of the Macau Post Daily, told AFP, describing it as the worst typhoon he had experienced in 30 years.
Hurricane winds and heavy rain had earlier hit Hong Kong, leaving an 83-year-old man dead after he fell into the sea, police said, and more than 80 injured.
