Tropical storm Kai-tak (Helen) to land at Guangdong near Haikou

Named Kai-tak but known as Helen locally, the storm has maximum sustained winds of about 65 mph and was positioned 370 miles east-southeast of Hong Kong at 8 p.m. local time (8 a.m. EDT) in the south China Sea.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects the storm’s peak winds to increase to 85 mph in the next day, which would make it a low-end typhoon.
 
It is predicted to make landfall around 8 p.m. local time (8 a.m. EDT) Thursday just west of Hong Kong in southern China.

As Kai-tak swept across Luzon Island – the northernmost island in the Philippines, it triggered landslides and killed two people. Rainfall rates were as high as 1.4 inches per hour Agence France-Presse reported. Over ocean waters of the Pacific, Our Amazing Planet said rainfall rates reached 4 inches per hour based on satellite estimates.

Adding to the chaos in the Philippines, the Associated Press reported state weather agency employees staged a protest about their wages during the storm. It wrote:

Forecasters and other employees of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration wore black arm bands and hoisted streamers urging the government to resume hazard pay and other allowances.

While the workers did not plan any work stoppage, protest leader Ramon Agustin said some hard-up employees have failed to report for work due to lack of money.

Satellite imagery shows the storm has passed the Philippines which have endured two weeks of on and off torrential rains killing nearly 100 people and displacing 400,000. At one point, about half the capital city of Manila was under water.