Southern China is frequently hit during the summer and autumn seasons by typhoons
Unrelenting rain and strong winds battered Hong Kong on Monday, delaying trading in the Asian finance hub and closing schools, as Typhoon Koinu swept towards China's southern island province of Hainan.
Koinu -- which caused one death in Taiwan last week -- had weakened into a tropical storm by Monday, Hong Kong's weather agency said.
The storm caused non-stop rain overnight, leading the Hong Kong Observatory to issue a "black" rainstorm warning signal -- its highest -- for about six hours before it was downgraded at 10:30 am (0230 GMT).
More than 150 millimetres of rain were recorded over most of the territory since midnight Monday, and rainfall exceeded 300 millimetres over parts of urban Hong Kong island, data showed.
A resident on Hong Kong's Lamma Island told AFP her ground-level flat had been flooded twice within a month.
"I have lived here for three years and have never experienced something like that," Ivory said as she tried to clear water out.
The overnight "black" rainstorm warning was the second since September, when Hong Kong experienced its highest rainfall in nearly 140 years, flooding subway stations and malls, and causing landslides.
Ivory said she had blocked her front door with sandbags, but still woke up on Monday morning to find her home flooded ankle-deep.
"The weather has apparently become more extreme," she said.
By Monday afternoon, the city had dropped all storm warning levels, and the Hong Kong stock exchange resumed afternoon trading for about two hours before markets closed.
Schools and daycare centres, ordered to shut when authorities issued the third-highest "T8" storm signal a day earlier, remained closed Monday.
The second-highest signal, "T9", was hoisted for nearly five hours on Sunday night -- when Koinu was closest to Hong Kong -- before it was downgraded just before midnight.
Southern China is frequently hit during the summer and autumn seasons by typhoons that form in the warm oceans east of the Philippines and then travel west.
But climate change has made tropical storms more unpredictable while increasing their intensity -- bringing more rain and stronger gusts that lead to flash floods and coastal damage, experts say.
- Transport disruptions -
Hoisting the second-highest typhoon warning on Sunday caused issues at Hong Kong's international airport, where thousands of visitors were stranded for an average of three hours without bus, subway or taxi services to the city.
"A large number of arriving passengers had to wait for a relatively long time because the AirPort Express -- a main transport link between the airport and the city -- was suspended due to safety reasons," said an airport representative Monday.
Authorities in Hainan -- about 470 kilometres (292 miles) north of Hong Kong -- said Koinu will bring strong gales and heavy rain until Wednesday, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported, adding that ferry services were suspended and more than 1,800 ships were called back to port.
Before moving to Hong Kong, Koinu had grazed nearby Taiwan, where torrential rain and record-breaking winds left one dead and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.
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