TAIPEI/HONG KONG, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A strong typhoon initially feared to be among the worst in 50 years showed signs of weakening on a course to the southern coast of China after forcing the closure of Taiwan's biggest seaport and stranding hundreds of people on the island.
Typhoon Megi was set to hit China's Fujian province as a category 1 typhoon, down from a 3 on a 1-5 severity scale, by Saturday and then fade to a tropical storm, Forecasting service Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com) said.
It would miss world financial centre Hong Kong and the industry-rich Pearl River Delta.
The same typhoon had killed 26 people in the Philippines and caused 314,577 metric tonnes in losses to the rice crop.[nSGE69K0C2]
"It's showing signs of weakening," said Lee Tsz-cheung, a senior scientific officer with the Hong Kong Observatory. "We expect the intensity will gradually decrease until it makes landfall and decreases further."
On its path to China with wind gusts of up to 198 kph (123 mph), Megi whipped up heavy waves that closed Taiwan's major seaport in Kaohsiung on Friday, harbour master Tsai Ting-yi said.
More than 1,200 mm of rainfall from the storm caused a highway to collapse in eastern Taiwan, stranding 400 travellers with 23 missing, disaster authorities on the island said.
A string of ports and oil terminals in southern China had closed operations on Thursday as marine authorities said the typhoon could generate a huge and destructive "50-year storm surge" along the China coastline.
Hong Kong's international terminal closed its container terminal gates to trucks transporting goods from the port overnight, but activity at China's port in Maoming, where Sinopec <0386.HK> runs a 270,000-bpd refinery, was resuming on Friday.
Typhoons regularly hit China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan in the second half of the year, gathering strength from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea before weakening over land. (Reporting by Ralph Jennings in Taipei, James Pomfret in Hong Kong, Jim Bai in Beijing and Randy Fabi in Singapore; Editing by Ken Wills and Miral Fahmy)
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