Hong Kong Braces as Super Typhoon Saola on Track to Hit City

Hong Kong said it may shut down the city, including its $5 trillion stock market, on Friday as Super Typhoon Saola approaches after pummeling northern Philippines.

(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong said it may shut down the city, including its $5 trillion stock market, on Friday as Super Typhoon Saola approaches after pummeling northern Philippines.

The typhoon was about 450 kilometers east-southeast of Hong Kong at 7 a.m. local time and will be closest to the city on Friday and Saturday, the city’s observatory said Thursday. The storm is currently packing winds of 210 kilometers (130 miles) per hour, according to its website.

Saola has the potential to be the strongest typhoon to hit Hong Kong since Mangkhut battered the city five years ago, leaving roads blocked, buildings damaged and low-lying areas flooded.

Hong Kong will raise its second-lowest storm signal T3 by 5 p.m. on Thursday and will consider hoisting the T8 alert on Friday, the observatory said. That signal would effectively shutter the city as offices and schools close and public transport is stopped.

The signals go up to 10, which means hurricane force winds reaching a sustained speed of 118 kilometers an hour are affecting the city. There have been 16 maximum-level storms in Hong Kong since records began in 1946.

The storm is forecast to move west-northwest at about 10 kilometers per hour across the northeastern part of the South China Sea and toward the coast of eastern Guangdong, the observatory said. There will be heavy squally showers and a storm surge to coastal low-lying areas, it said.

Saola earlier flooded nearly 200 towns in the Philippines and forced some 50,000 people to flee to safer grounds. Taiwan lifted a land warning on Wednesday night while its sea warning remains, according to a statement from the island’s Central Weather Bureau.

China is also set to be affected by another typhoon nearer Shanghai, called Haikui. The country has activated a level four emergency response for floods in six provincial-level regions, including Guangdong and Shanghai, Xinhua reported on Wednesday. Haikui is forecast to affect the East China Sea around Sunday, it said.

China has been hit by bouts of extreme weather this summer which have caused flooding in the north that left dozens dead.

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