Typhoon Koinu approaches southern China, Hong Kong after Taiwan sees record-breaking winds

A typhoon was headed toward southern China and Hong Kong on Friday after bringing record-breaking winds and leaving one dead in Taiwan.

Typhoon Koinu, after initially weakening, regained strength as it headed west across the South China Sea toward China’s Guangdong province, the China Meteorological Administration said. The slow-moving storm was forecast to remain at sea, bringing rain to China’s southern coast through the weekend as it passes south of Guangdong and Hong Kong.

The storm was about 150 miles southeast of Hong Kong on Friday evening and moving at about 7 miles per hour, the city government’s Hong Kong Observatory said. It issued a strong wind warning and forecast squally showers, heavy at times, in the coming days.

Hong Kong was hit by heavy rains about one month ago that killed at least two people and caused widespread flooding.

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Ferry service was suspended in parts of Guangdong province, and the city of Guangzhou canceled some flights and trains.

Koinu, which means “puppy” in Japanese, brought pounding rain and wind gusts to southern and central Taiwan on Thursday, downing trees and damaging buildings. An 84-year-old woman was killed by flying glass in Taichung city and about 400 others were injured around the island, Taiwan’s fire department said.

A weather monitoring station on Taiwan’s outlying Orchid Island measured a gust of 212.9 mph at 9:53 p.m. Wednesday, as well as sustained winds that reached 198.7 kph at 9:40 p.m. The device measuring the wind speeds broke shortly afterward, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.