Hong Kong will issue its third-highest storm warning later Thursday as Super Typhoon Yagi skirts the city and tracks toward southern China, with coastal regions bracing for destructive winds and heavy rain.
Yagi has maximum sustained winds of 130 knots (241 km) per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning centre. 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.
The Hong Kong Observatory will issue a Typhoon Signal 8 at 6.20pm local time — a warning of gale or storm force winds. If the alert remains as of 9am on Friday, the city’s US$5 trillion ($6.51 trillion) stock market will cancel its morning trading session. Yagi is currently 360km south-southeast of the city.
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 education bureau announced a suspension of classes for schools on Friday to ensure the safety of students. Hong Kong had already suspended schools for children with special needs and kindergartens on Thursday.
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.
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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.
Heavy rains 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 centre.
