Typhoon-hit Hainan limping back to normalcy

The island province of Hainan, battered by the devastating impact of Super Typhoon Yagi on Friday, is working to return to normalcy, including facilitating efforts to restore electricity and telecommunications by Wednesday, said the local government.

The telecommunication infrastructure in Hainan has suffered "catastrophic damage", according to the provincial government. In Haikou alone, 56,926 kilometers of communication lines have been damaged, along with 7,047 communication base stations. Some streets and townships in the city are still experiencing communication disruptions.

Yagi, the 11th typhoon of the year, was reportedly the most powerful autumn typhoon to strike the Chinese mainland in more than 70 years. It made landfall twice on Friday, hitting Hainan province first and then Guangdong province.

The country's telecom providers have mobilized a team of 1,100 support personnel, 2,900 emergency power generators and over 370 support vehicles to assist with communication repairs in Hainan.

Kuang Long, from the Haikou branch of China Mobile, hasn't been home for four days. After receiving multiple malfunction alerts, he was dispatched for on-site maintenance.

"When I arrived, I found that the assigned area was without power, and the base station site was on the 20th floor," he said. "I had to climb up the stairs to check the situation."

He recalled that since there was no signal to talk with his colleagues downstairs, he had to go back down after reviewing the situation to start the diesel generator for power generation.

Further reviews required him to go up and down the stairs from the lobby to the 20th floor several times.

The power supply in his area hasn't been restored to normal yet. Continuous power generation is required to keep the base station working. The trailer-mounted diesel generator parked on the roadside has become his primary focus. He needs to check whether the generator is overheating or needs diesel refueling, and keeps bystanders at a safe distance.

Amid these challenges, Kuang remains hopeful that telecommunication services will be restored soon.

Along with the disrupted telecommunication, Hainan's power grid has been hit hard.

Yagi has affected a total of 1.68 million households. Power has been restored to 1.1 million households. The electricity supply for key users across the province has been largely restored, said Zhao Youcheng, deputy secretary of the Party committee of Hainan Power Grid, at a news briefing on Monday evening.

To accelerate the power restoration process, China Southern Power Grid has deployed personnel from Guangdong province, Guizhou province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Over 10,000 personnel have been dispatched in four batches to support Hainan across the Qiongzhou Strait.

Yi Daping, 55, from Guangdong, is a member of the first group deployed from the province to assist Hainan ahead of Yagi's arrival. He arrived on Wednesday, despite his family's concerns for his safety.

A decade ago, Yi took part in the restoration of power after Super Typhoon Rammasun struck Haikou. Yi said while he may not possess the agility of younger team members in scaling utility poles, he can offer substantial restoration insights and expertise to the team.

In Guangdong, another hard-hit province, people have been cleaning up after the typhoon, which made its second landfall in Xuwen county late on Friday.

Zhang Lei, an official with Nanshan town in Xuwen, has been busy with colleagues visiting local villages to check the disaster situation and help residents rebuild their homes and restore production.

"Now the top priority is to ensure the safety of the villages, to reopen damaged roads and assist the people in need," he said.

In all of Xuwen, more than 900 rescue teams were busy at work on streets and highways and in villages and ports to help the county restore production and social order.

Zheng Caixiong in Guangzhou contributed to this story.