HONG KONG, Sept. 1 (Reuters) – Hundreds of flights were canceled in China’s Guangdong province and Hong Kong as powerful Typhoon Saola approached the mainland on Friday, forcing authorities to raise the storm warning level and close businesses, schools and financial markets.
Three tropical cyclones formed in the northwest Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, with Saola and Haikoi already classified as typhoons, while Kiruji, the furthest from land, still classified as a tropical storm, according to meteorologists.
Typhoon Saola, carrying winds of more than 200 kilometers per hour, was heading towards the coast of the eastern province of Guangdong, which includes Hong Kong. This could be among the five strongest typhoons to hit Guangdong Province since 1949, Chinese authorities said Thursday, in their highest typhoon warning.
The China National Meteorological Center said Saola could make landfall Friday evening or Saturday morning as a severe typhoon along the coast from Huidong to Taishan in Guangdong. Neighboring Hong Kong and Macao lie in the middle of this coastline.
The Hong Kong Observatory said weather conditions will deteriorate rapidly as the typhoon makes landfall, adding that it will study the need for higher typhoon warning signals between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday.
Serious flooding is expected, with the water level in some areas up to about 3 meters (10 feet) above the normal tide level.
Hong Kong has five typhoon ratings, 1, 3, 8, 9 and top 10, and currently has a signal 8 in effect.
The government said all schools in Hong Kong are closed on Friday, even though it is the first day of the semester for many.
“We can see that the eye of the typhoon will pass near Hong Kong. I am feeling some anxiety and I hope it will not cause too many casualties,” said Wai Yi, 58, in Heung Fa Chuen district, east of the city. .
Neighboring cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou also closed schools, while technology hub Shenzhen went further, halting work, businesses and financial markets from Friday afternoon.
In Hong Kong, crowds were seen stampeding Thursday at fresh food markets in the city’s downtown Wan Chai district, with many vegetables already sold out. Supermarkets saw long lines of people to stock up before the storm.
The city’s main carrier, Cathay Pacific, said all flights to and from Hong Kong between 2pm (0600GMT) on Friday and 10am (0200GMT) on Saturday had been cancelled.
It added that more delays and cancellations of flights may be needed based on the hurricane’s path on Saturday morning.
Data from Flightmaster showed that by 10:55 am (0255 GMT) on Friday, Zhuhai and Shenzhen airports had canceled hundreds of flights.
Guangdong authorities have suspended all trains to and from the province from 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) Friday to 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) Saturday.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge linking the three cities will be closed from 3:30 p.m. (0730 GMT) on Friday to ensure transportation safety, according to local newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily, without specifying a date for the opening of the bridge.
The Macau Weather Observatory said it will raise the wind warning level to signal 8 by 2 p.m. Friday. She can raise it to the top 10 signal early on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, Typhoon Haikui is approaching Taiwan and is expected to make landfall in the northern part of the island on Sunday before heading toward the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, according to Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Bureau.
Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong said on its website
Wechat official account, stop overseas operations and transfer vulnerable materials from the factory. It added that emergency personnel are on duty and all personnel and facilities on the base are safe.
(Reporting by Farah Master and Joyce Chu in Hong Kong and Bernard Orr, Ryan Wu and Ethan Wang in Beijing and Newsroom in Beijing) Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Lincoln Feist and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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