The Government continues to further efforts to alleviate conditions for the community in the aftermath of Typhoon Hato, as well as stepping up search and rescue work.
The Civil Protection Action Centre and public departments involved in the relief work held a press conference in the afternoon to give the public more information about the measures taken to ease typhoon impact.
As of 3pm today, the Centre had recorded a total of 641 incidents across Macao and the Islands (Taipa and Coloane) as a result of Typhoon Hato. At around 6am today, the Centre confirmed that the body of a man aged approximately 30 had been found between the first- and second-level basements of Edifício Fai Tat in Fai Chi Kei. At 7.37pm, the Centre confirmed the body of another man had been found in a third-level basement of Edificio Hang Tak, in Rua de São Joao de Brito.
Following the update, the death toll confirmed to 10 (eight males and two females). A further 244 people were injured.
With regard to Macao’s electrical power supply, the city’s power company said it would in likelihood take either one or two more days to repair the outstanding 24 of 130 substations that were damaged across the city during the typhoon. It is estimated that – as of early evening on Friday – there were around 3,700 households affected by power interruption, mainly in areas near Fai Chi Kei, Ilha Verde and Toi San in the Northern District.
Water supply to most areas across the city was generally stable as of Friday evening, after three sets of equipment at Ilha Verde water pumping plant had undergone repair.
The Macao Foundation has organised the collection from outside Macao of more than 160,000 bottles of water and has shared an aggregate of approximately 120,000 with people in special need. In addition, the Foundation has received 126 applications for medical subsidy and another 925 applications for housing repair subsidy. The Foundation will extend its working hours to cover the weekend of 26 and 27 August in order to assist members of the public wishing to apply for subsidies.
The Public Security Police Force said around 80 percent of the city’s road network had reopened to traffic and all boundary checkpoints were maintaining normal operations. The three bridges linking Macao peninsula with Taipa had reopened to traffic, except dedicated lanes for motorbikes at the Sai Van Bridge.
The police services have had no recorded cases of major crime since the typhoon made landfall. Nonetheless, the services dealing with law and order and security would deploy more patrol officers in order to ensure public order.
The Fire Services Bureau would continue to remove water from those car parks where flooding has been reported; the Macao Customs Service would continue to carry out search and rescue work in the venues flooded.
Some 1,000 troops from the People's Liberation Army Macao Garrison, police officers, fire officers, staff from the Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau, non-governmental organisations and volunteers had been working together to remove debris from streets across the city, so as to ensure a return to normality as quickly as possible.
As of early morning today, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau had cleared more than 1,500 tonnes of large debris.
The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau has been paying close attention to the development of a new tropical storm designated “Pakhar” and has noted the possibility of it affecting Macao, based on the forecast route of the storm. The Bureau will keep the public updated regarding any change in weather conditions and any possibility of flooding in the city’s low-lying areas.