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As Super Typhoon Saola approaches after pummeling northern Philippines, Hong Kong has said it may shut down the city, including its $5 trillion stock market on Friday.
Though the observatory didn’t specify the time, markets may be disrupted if the No. 8 signal were to be raised between 7 am and 3:45 p.m. on Friday. This would be the second time this year that a storm affects trading in the city.
As per the Hong Kong Observatory, the typhoon was about 450 kilometers east-southeast of Hong Kong at 7 am local time and will be closest to the city on Friday and Saturday, Bloomberg has reported. It added that the storm is currently packing winds of 210 kilometers (130 miles) per hour.
The observatory said that Hong Kong will raise its second-lowest storm signal T3 by 5 pm on Thursday and will consider hoisting the T8 alert on Friday. That signal would effectively shutter the city as offices and schools close and public transport is stopped. Hong Kong ranks typhoons on a scale ranging from 1 at its lowest to 10 at the strongest.
China too has issued the highest typhoon warning on Thursday as Typhoon Saola crawled closer to the southeastern coastline, threatening Hong Kong and other major manufacturing hubs in neighbouring Guangdong province.
Chinese forecasters issued a typhoon red warning at 6 am (2200 GMT). China’s National Meteorological Center said Saola, currently located about 295km (183 miles) southeast of Guangdong province, will move northwest across the South China Sea at a speed of about 10 kph (6 miles per hour), gradually approaching the coast of Guangdong, then slowly weaken in intensity, as reported by Reuters. China Railway has suspended several major train lines and Shanghai halted trains heading to Guangdong, according to local media.
On Wednesday, Saola brushed the southern tip of Taiwan bringing heavy rain and winds that disrupted some travel and prompted the island to issue land and sea warnings. It 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.
(With inputs from Bloomberg, Reuters)
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Updated: 31 Aug 2023, 09:00 AM IST
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