美国有线新闻 CNN 台风天鸽侵袭中国东南部地区

 

People in southeast China are measuring the scope of the damage caused by a powerful typhoon that hit yesterday morning. It was called typhoon Hato.

It brought powerful winds and flooding to this region and several deaths were blamed in the storm.

One thing unique about it was that Hato wasn't initially¹ very powerful as it moved toward Hong Kong. It was about the equivalent of an average tropical storm. But that changed in just 24 hours before it made landfall. Hato's wind speeds nearly doubled in that time before the storm crashed into the special administrative² regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

A local weather service said it was the strongest storm to hit the area in five years. Hato's maximum wind speeds were around 108 miles per hour, which is almost the strength of a category three hurricane. It made landfall during high tide, bringing large waves, flooding and damage to the coast. Schools, businesses and the stock market were closed.

And then as Hato moved west over China, it passed over a densely³ populated area, more than 60 million people were in the path of the system. The threat wasn't as great inland though tough. Typhoons like hurricanes are fueled by war water and they general lose their strength as they pass over land.

1 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

2 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

3 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。