Hong Kong issues highest warning as Super Typhoon Ragasa nears coast

Hong Kong elevated Typhoon Ragasa to its highest warning rase as the scheme neared the coast, bringing destructive winds and souse rain down and potentially comely the most damaging storm in seven years.

Super Typhoon Ragasa was about 130 kilometers (81 miles) southeast of Hong Kong at 3 a.m. Local time Wednesday and was forecast to come within 100 kilometers of the city later, the Hong Kong Observatory said. The system is expected to pass south of the financial hub. The agency raised Hurricane Signal No. 10 — the highest on the local scale. Officials said the warning will remain in force for some time.

The agency also issued an Amber Rainstorm Warning Signal, saying that heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 30 millimeters (1 inch) in an hour, and is likely to continue.

In addition to winds and heavy rain, water levels along Hong Kong’s coast may rise by as much as 2 meters starting about 6 a.m. And could reach even higher in other areas, including Tolo Harbour. Ragasa may be the most destructive storm to hit the area since Mangkhut in 2018.

“Do not go outside,” the agency warned. “People outdoors should find a safe place now and remain there until the danger is over.”

Ragasa’s top winds dropped to 120 kilometers per hour, down from 205 kph earlier and is a Category 3 system on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

Ragasa has already caused major flight disruptions and suspension of school classes and business activities across southern China after skirting the northern Philippines on Monday.

The super typhoon forced some conferences and forums scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, including a gathering on fixed income and currencies, to switch to online while several delegates have pulled out of an aviation conference. Loan bankers also rushed to get paperwork physically signed to keep deals moving along.

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 ($592 million). The city may see a similar storm surge from Ragasa, according to forecasters.

“The only thing that will stop this storm is land,” the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said in an earlier advisory.

Passenger flights in and out of Hong Kong will be suspended for 36 hours from 6 p.m. Local time on Tuesday. Almost 50% of the 1,098 passenger and cargo flights due to depart and arrive at the airport have already been axed, according to data compiled by Webb-site.com.

Airports in Shenzhen and Macau will also close for an unspecified period, and all rail services in China’s Guangdong province will be suspended on Wednesday. Cities including Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Foshan — the country’s “aluminum capital” — also suspended classes and work.

In Taiwan, thousands of households lost power, and offices and schools were closed in some southern cities, while nearly 25,000 people were evacuated across the Philippines’ main Luzon island. Ragasa skirted the northern part of the archipelago and is now churning in the South China Sea.

The storm is expected to weaken as it tracks toward Vietnam after clipping southern China, and the Southeast Asian nation has put more than 300,000 military personnel, 8,000 vehicles and six aircraft on standby for the cyclone.

Ragasa is forecast to make landfall somewhere on China’s southern coast near Yangjiang in the coming day.

After that, the storm’s remnants are expected to move into northern Vietnam, bringing torrential rains and possible flooding and landslides to Hanoi and Laos.

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