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Oil terminals batten down as typhoon threatens Hong Kong

by Reuters
Thursday, 21 October 2010 02:44 GMT

HONG KONG, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Five Hong Kong oil terminals shut down operations on Thursday, forcing tankers to anchor offshore to ride out one of the biggest typhoons to threaten the South China coast in years.

Chinese television said 48,000 fishing vessels had returned to port, while on the tropical resort island of Hainan, vulnerable to heavy flooding, 200,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying areas.

Typhoon Megi, which killed 19 people in the Philippines, looked set to make landfall on Saturday east of Hong Kong, one of the world's most crowded cities long used to cyclonic storms which usually threaten between May and September when the sea waters are at their warmest.

"At present we estimate its (wind) intensity at around 175 kilometres per hour," Lee Tsz-cheung, a senior scientific officer, told Reuters. "We still cannot rule out the possibility of Megi intensifying further."

Tropical Storm Risk (http://www.tropicalstormrisk.com) predicted the storm would weaken and make landfall between Hong Kong and Zhangzhou, to the east of the former British colony.

Neighbouring Taiwan warned shipping of high winds and strong waves. A ship that sank in the Strait earlier this week killed one on board.

Oil platforms in the eastern part of the South China Sea were evacuated on Wednesday, a source said. Asia's top oil refiner, China's Sinopec Corp, suspended some small volumes of fuel loading destined for Hong Kong, another source said.

On Thursday, five oil product terminals at Hong Kong's Tsing Yi port shut down, an official with shipping and logistics agency GAC said.

"Tankers are leaving and going for anchorage," he said.

Typhoons usually weaken significantly after making landfall in China, but sometimes do a u-turn and regain strength from the warm sea water to threaten once again. (Reporting by James Pomfret in Hong Kong and John Mair in Manila; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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