The coastal area is flooded after heavy rainfall brought by Typhoon Hagupit in Zhuhai South China's Guangdong Province, September 24, 2008. Six people were confirmed dead in the Typhoon Hagupit, the worst storm to hit Guangdong in more than a decade, which forced the closure of schools, halted flights and left many urban streets deserted after making landfall in Guangdong Province early on Wednesday. [Xinhua]

Waves batter a waterfront park as Typhoon Hagupit brings heavy rainfall to Beihai, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, September 24, 2008. [Xinhua]

Typhoon Hagupit forced the closure of schools in at least two south China cities, halted flights and left many urban streets deserted after making landfall in Guangdong Province early on Wednesday.

Six people were confirmed dead in the storm, according to the Guangdong Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, which estimated that direct economic losses in the coastal province approached 6 billion yuan (about 770 million U.S. dollars) so far.

The 14th strong typhoon of the year landed in Dianbai County in the city of Maoming at 6:45 a.m. with winds of more than 200 km per hour in its eye, the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Bureau said.

Strong gales uprooted many trees and billboards in Maoming when the storm landed. City authorities said one fishing boat sank off Dianbai County, but no casualties were reported.

As the worst typhoon to hit Guangdong in more than a decade, Hagupit forced the closure of all schools and kindergartens in the coastal city of Zhanjiang, where gales and rain left most streets deserted even in the morning rush hour.

"Hagupit has brought strong gales to all the nine counties and districts in Zhanjiang," said Peng Wenzhen, deputy chief of the city's water resources bureau.

The high wind destroyed a gas station along the Zhanjiang section of State Highway No. 325 and a factory under construction. The local government said no casualties were reported in either accident.

But fallen trees disrupted traffic on the state highway on Wednesday morning and farmers had huge losses as the gales destroyed their banana trees on either side of the highway.

Meanwhile, heavy rain since Tuesday night caused problems for five of the city's 800 reservoirs, bringing them on the verge of overflowing. "We have sluiced water from the five reservoirs and are watching closely as the rainstorm persists," said Peng.

Hagupit has triggered a once-in-a-century storm tide -- a high flood period in which water levels can rise to more than 5 meters above the normal tide -- in several coastal cities including Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Yangjiang.

"I have been working at the Jiuzhou port for more than 20 years and seen no less than 10 typhoons, but this is the first time that the sea water flooded into the hall of the Customs," said a policeman surnamed Chen in Zhuhai.

The balusters along the coastal road were damaged by sea waves, and the depth of sea water at the parking lot reached one meter, with several cars half-submerged.

A team of 130 police officers struggled for four hours early on Wednesday to save 50 villagers who were stranded by floods that overflowed a 200-meter embankment in Zhuhai.

Total rain in Zhuhai's Doumen town, one of the worst-hit towns by the storm, reached 194.6 mm in the 22 hours ending at 10 a.m. Wednesday, the local meteorological bureau said.

The water level at Dashi hydrological station in the provincial capital Guangzhou was 2.73 meters on Wednesday morning, a 100-year record, and it showed no sign of subsiding by midday.

Li Jianji, an expert with the provincial astronomical society, said the storm tide was likely to last for a day.

The provincial meteorological bureau said the typhoon was trailing off while moving northwestward at 25 km per hour. But rainstorms were expected to continue through Thursday.

The province recalled more than 50,000 vessels at sea with almost 200,000 fishermen and crew members on Tuesday.

In the capital city of Guangzhou, more than 800 houses were flooded. Police officers in rafts had rescued more than 30 trapped residents by Wednesday noon.

In the coastal city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, frontier police officers saved five fishermen trapped in an aqua-culture farm in the sea, including a woman and two children at around 3 a.m.

Voyage to the Qiongzhou Straits was halted from Tuesday. By Wednesday noon, more than 300 vehicles have detoured to their destinations. Local government estimated that the traffic could be resumed on Thursday morning.

Strong gales and heavy rain also wreaked havoc in the southernmost island province of Hainan, and the provincial capital Haikou issued a notice late on Tuesday, ordering all schools and kindergartens to be closed on Wednesday.

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, 33 flights had been cancelled at Meilan Airport in Haikou, affecting nearly 2,700 passengers. The airport remained closed at 10 a.m.

The airport in Shenzhen also cancelled most domestic flights after 7 p.m. on Tuesday and encouraged passengers to postpone or cancel their trips.

More than 20 flights from Pudong International Airport in Shanghai to Hong Kong were delayed on Wednesday. By 6 p.m., there were still six planes bounding for Hong Kong waiting for taking off.

In adjacent Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, local governments were keeping close watch on secondary disasters.

Hagupit entered the coastal city of Beihai on Wednesday noon, blowing down trees and poles. Schools were closed and billboards were dismantled to prevent them from being blown down. Electricity was cut off in some parts of the city to avoid accidents.

But Hagupit's landfall in Guangdong seemingly eased the rain in the southeastern Fujian Province, meteorologists said.

Affected by the typhoon, most parts of the province were drenched by heavy rain until early Wednesday, with the maximum precipitation hitting 89 mm in the 22 hours ending 6 a.m. in some coastal counties.

The torrential rain weakened to a drizzle in most cities on Wednesday morning and the provincial capital Fuzhou has cleared up.

Hagupit is the second typhoon in a week to affect Taiwan, Fujian and Guangdong, after typhoon Sinlaku lashed the region last week.

Editor: Yan