The Office of the Government Spokesperson and the Civil Protection Action Centre jointly hold a press conference on Wednesday evening (23 August) to give more information on the measures taken in response to the emergency.
The Government has been paying close attention to the impact of Typhoon Hato, with all departments playing their respective required roles to respond to the effects of the typhoon.
The Office of the Government Spokesperson, along with the Civil Protection Action Centre – together with a number of public departments – jointly held a press conference on Wednesday evening (23 August) to give more information on the measures taken in response to the emergency.
The Government Spokesperson, Mr Chan Chi Ping, said the Government paid great attention to prevailing conditions in the wake of the typhoon, adding the Chief Executive, Mr Chui Sai On, had directed measures – when visiting the Civil Protection Action Centre while the Typhoon Signal No. 8 remained in place – to further the relief efforts.
The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau had issued at 9am on Wednesday, Typhoon Signal No.8. Later, the Bureau issued Signal No.9 and then Signal No.10 in response to the typhoon’s progress.
At the press briefing, the Office for the Development of the Energy Sector explained the power outage in Macao was due to a malfunction caused by the typhoon to grid system delivering electricity to Macao from Zhuhai. The power outage started at 12.24pm on Wednesday, with service resumed in some areas by 1.26pm that day. The Office explained it would nonetheless take some time to resume full operation of power generation equipment in Macao after the service interruption from Zhuhai.
As of 7.30pm on 23 August, the Health Bureau confirmed five human fatalities due to the typhoon, which occurred despite the best efforts of rescue workers. A 30-year-old non-resident worker was hit by a falling wall; a 60-year-old local resident fell from the 11th floor to 4th floor of a building; a 49-year-old mainland resident was struck by a van; and a 48-year-old man and a 44-year-old female died from drowning.
As of 6pm on 23 August, the Conde S. Januário Hospital and the Kiang Wu Hospital had received a total of 153 people injured during the typhoon. Most had been hurt either by storm-shattered glass or by blows from heavy objects. Their injuries ranged from fractured bones to damage in or around the eyes. All the patients treated had shown improvement, and no severe injury was recorded by the Health Bureau.
The Border Gate checkpoint services were suspended at 1pm on 23 August and resumed at 3.10pm the same day.
Border checkpoint services at theOuter Harbour Ferry Terminal and the Taipa Ferry Terminal were suspended from 7.35am on 23 August. A number of facilities at the two terminals were damaged by the typhoon. Starting from 7am on 24 August, limited ferry services were resumed at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal.
The Lotus Flower Bridge Checkpoint service was suspended from 10.25am on 23 August and resumed on 2pm on 24 August. The Zhuhai-Macao Crossborder Industrial Zone Checkpoint resumed services at 10.30am on 24 August.
As of 11am on 24 August, the Macau International Airport border checkpoint had resumed service and the three bridges acting as crossing points between Macao and Taipa had reopened to traffic.