HONG KONG: Hong Kong is facing potentially the most damaging cyclone since Mangkhut in 2018, as a super typhoon tracks toward the financial hub with ferocious winds after skirting the Philippines.
Super Typhoon Ragasa is packing top sustained winds of 230 kilometres per hour, according to the local weather agency, which is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. The system was 510 kilometers east-southeast of the city as of 8 a.m. local time.
Hong Kong’s international airport is expecting major disruptions and schools have been closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, with similar measures being put in place across parts of southern China. The typhoon will likely delay the initial public offering for Zijin Gold International Co., which is currently taking orders for its US$3.2 billion IPO, the world’s largest in months.
Weather in the city will start to "deteriorate rapidly” later on Tuesday, and the typhoon will be closest to the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary on Wednesday morning, the Hong Kong Observatory said. Ragasa is an expansive tropical system, extending hundreds of kilometres outward from its core.
In 2018, Mangkhut brought damaging winds and record-breaking storm surges to Hong Kong, with the weather agency estimating it caused total economic losses including insurance claims of HK$4.6 billion (US$592 million). The city may see a similar storm surge from Ragasa, according to forecasters.
The Hong Kong Observatory is set to raise its third-highest storm warning on Tuesday afternoon - dubbed signal No. 8. The most severe alert, signal No. 10, means hurricane-force winds are present or expected.
Passenger flights in and out of Hong Kong will be suspended for 36 hours from 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Latest data from the airport and compiled by Webb-site.com showed more than half of the 443 outbound flights today have been canceled, including scores well before the airfield’s de-facto shutter.
Across the city, businesses and residents are taking steps to prepare, with some grocery stores cleared of food items such as fresh vegetables. Many shop and apartment windows are also taped up with giant X’s, a practice thought to protect against flying debris, but a measure the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says is a waste of time and tape.
In Taiwan, thousands of households experienced power outages, and offices and schools were closed in some southern cities and counties. The southern Chinese city of Foshan, a manufacturing hub as the country’s "aluminum capital,” also suspended classes and work.
Nearly 25,000 people were evacuated across the Philippines’ main Luzon island, according to the interior department. Ragasa skirted the northern part of the country and is now churning in the South China Sea. - Bloomberg
