Transport resumes as Typhoon Vicente leaves

Simpson Cheung and Lai Ying-kit, SCMP, Updated on Jul 24, 2012 Commuters flocked to take public transport on Tuesday morning as the tropical cyclone signal was lowered to No 3 after the city was lashed by Typhoon Vicente overnight. Vicente is starting to move away from Hong Kong hours after the No 10 hurricane signal was raised at 12.45am the first time since Typhoon York in 1999. That typhoon, which had the No 10 signal up for 11 hours, caused two deaths and 500 injuries. No deaths were reported as a result of Vicente, with just under 130 people injured. The top signal lasted for less than three hours on Tuesday morning, when it was replaced by No 8 Southeast storm signal at 3.35am. The signal was subsequently lowered to No 3 at 10.10am, the Hong Kong Observatory said. Vicente weakened into a severe tropical storm and continued to move farther away from Hong Kong steadily this morning. Local winds have weakened gradually, a spokesman said. Public transport services gradually returned to normal. There were long queues at bus stops as fully laden buses passed without stopping. The Hospital Authority said some 129 people, aged 4 to 86, received emergency treatment during the storm and 72 were admitted to public hospitals. Vicente also felled 1,033 trees while causing seven flooding reports and one landslide. Sixty airline flights were cancelled, 60 delayed and 16 diverted to other places, from midnight to 8am, according to Airport Authority. A total of 266 residents were admitted to 24 temporary shelters opened by Home Affairs Department. Hundreds of passengers were stranded in trains and stations along the MTR Corporation East Rail line overnight after a tree collapse hit a power supply unit near the Tai Po Market station around 11pm, causing a failure in its power network. Eight northbound trains had to be stopped midway at Fo Tan, short of their destination of Sheung Shui. The passengers could only finish their journeys seven hours after they had boarded the train when services resumed around 6am. They said they were not happy the MTR failed to arrange buses to take them to their destinations. Trading on share and derivative markets in Hong Kong will resume at 1pm. Classes of all-day schools were suspended. Night school classes resumed. All court hearings will resumed at 2.30pm. At 11am, Vincente was estimated to be about 260 kilometres west of Hong Kong, and was moving west or west-northwest at about 22km/h crossing western Guangdong and entering Guangxi.