Diving from the skies

As Typhoon Hato wreaked havoc in Macau yesterday, several big structures and construction sites around the city have been destroyed or collapsed, while electricity and water supply have been cut off for several hours – with services only partially re-established by the time this paper went to print.
At least two cranes used on the construction site of Nova Grand building, a development by Shun Tak Holdings Limited in Taipa, toppled over during the storm generated by the tropical cyclone.
Cranes were also observed falling on a construction site in the new development area of Hengqin.
A residential building near Casino Ponte 16, operated by SJM, had several windows blown out by the severe gusts of wind that rampaged through the city as the typhoon approached Macau.
The structure crowning the top of the Macao Cultural Centre edifice has also been seriously affected.
Reports about serious damage to the structure of Integrated Resorts in Cotai were also received. Union Gaming, a brokerage, said in a note yesterday that there were ‘photos of flooded casino floor(s) circulating,’ which the brokerage believes are of a ‘3rd party casino(s) on the Peninsula.’
It was the first time in five years that a typhoon had pushed the Meteorological and Geophysical Services (SMG) to hoist the tropical storm warning signal to T10 by mid-morning yesterday.
The maximum sustained wind near the ce ntre at that moment reached some 165 kilometres per hour, according to information provided by the Hong Kong Observatory.
Previously, the local meteorological bureau had hoisted the signal from no. 3 to no. 8 at 9:00am, and then to 9 an hour or so later.
By that time, all the bridge connections between Macau and Taipa had already been closed to traffic. At 3:00pm they still remained closed.
By early afternoon, the same services updated the warning to ‘+10.’
A T10 tropical cyclone falls into the category of a severe typhoon. The aggravation of conditions would lead to a super typhoon.