Hong Kong Warns of Flight Disruptions as Super Typhoon Nears

Hong Kong raised its storm warning to the third-highest level as Super Typhoon Yagi skirts the city, with flights set to be disrupted throughout Friday as the storm tracks toward southern China.

The Hong Kong Observatory issued a so-called Typhoon Signal 8, a warning of gale or storm-force winds near sea level, at 6:20 p.m. local time. It expects the alert will remain at least until noon on Friday. The train to the airport and the city’s underground rail services will normally run on a limited schedule when the alert is raised, depending on the severity of the storm.

Under the stock exchange’s current rules, the city’s $5 trillion equity market will now cancel its morning trading session. The afternoon session could still begin if the alert is lowered at noon.

Yagi was centered about 330 kilometers south of Hong Kong at around 11 p.m. It will remain at super-typhoon intensity and skirt around 300 kilometers to the southwest of the city on Friday morning, the HKO said.

Yagi has maximum sustained winds of 120 knots (222 kilometers) per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The system is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, which is considered a major storm that has the capacity to inflict catastrophic damage. Yagi’s top winds weakened somewhat Thursday evening, but the typhoon warning center expects the storm could intensify again overnight.

The Hong Kong education bureau announced a suspension of classes at schools on Friday to ensure the safety of students, and airport authorities warned of flight disruptions the whole day as they activated rescheduling systems.

Yagi could be the last typhoon to force a closure of Hong Kong’s stock exchange — the financial hub will end its decades-long practice of shutting markets during typhoons from Sept. 23.

The storm killed at least 15 people in the Philippines and forced thousands to flee before moving into the South China Sea. The Chinese city of Haikou on Hainan Island will close schools, factories and supermarkets from Thursday in preparation for Yagi, China Central Television reported.

Yagi, known as Makar in China, could become the strongest typhoon to hit the island in the past decade, according to the Hainan Meteorological Administration. Hainan has issued its highest emergency response level, Xinhua reported, citing the provincial disaster management authority. China Southern Power Grid Co., one of the country’s top electricity grid firms, also raised its emergency response level on Thursday and implemented various defensive measures against the typhoon and expected heavy rain.

The downpour from the typhoon could threaten rice crops in Guangdong province and sugarcane in neighboring Guangxi. Extreme weather from heat waves to flooding has already impacted agriculture throughout China this summer.

Once Yagi passes southern China, it’s forecast to head toward northern Vietnam, although at a weaker intensity, according to the typhoon warning center.

Top photo: Staff members reinforce doors and windows bracing for the Typhoon Yagi at Xinhai Port in Haikou, Hainan Province, on Sept. 4. Photographer: Luo Yunfei/China News Service/VCG/Getty Images.