Typhoon Kills 25 in Southern China

Reportedly destroys more than 7,000 homes

A powerful typhoon that had threatened Hong Kong brushed past the southern Chinese city Sunday night and crashed into a mountainous swath of Guangdong province, killing at least 25 people, according to the local news media.

Although the storm forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in Hong Kong and delayed the opening of financial markets on Monday, Typhoon Usagi – described as among the region's most dangerous storms in three decades – weakened as it approached the densely populated Pearl River Delta with winds that topped 170 kilometres per hour.

More than half the deaths occurred in and around the coastal city of Shanwei on Sunday night. The dead included seven railroad construction workers, two people who drowned when their fishing boat capsized and a man hit by a window dislodged by gale-force winds, the state-run media said. Flooding and strong gusts downed power lines, leaving 170,000 people without electricity.