Cities along Guangdong coast hunker down for Saola
Neighbouring cities in Guangdong on Friday shut down businesses and schools and scrapped hundreds of flights as mainland authorities warned that Super Typhoon Saola could be among the five strongest to hit the southern province since 1949. More than 460,000 people have been evacuated to safety in Guangdong, where primary schools, middle schools and kindergartens in 13 cities have been asked to push back the start of the new semester to September 4. Mainland weather authorities have said Saola could make landfall along the coast between the cities of Huidong and Taishan. Hong Kong and Macau lie in the centre of that stretch. Authorities suspended trains services in Guangdong from 8pm on Friday to 6pm on Saturday, while the cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou have already shut schools. Shenzhen, a city of more 17 million, also suspended work, businesses and financial markets from Friday afternoon, warning that destructive winds could lash it through Saturday. "Of course I'm worried, it's forecast to be a big one and I want to get home," a delivery driver surnamed Lu said on a busy day for the city's supermarkets, many set to close early. By 11 am on Friday, the airports in Shenzhen and the nearby city of Zhuhai had cancelled hundreds of flights. Meanwhile, 85,000 fishery vessels in the province have returned to their harbours, and 82 coastal resorts have been temporarily closed. And officials of the Taishan nuclear power plant said it had halted outdoor operations and transferred out vulnerable materials, with emergency staff placed on duty.  Super Typhoon Saola, earlier triggered floods and landslides in the Philippines, and left at least one dead and displaced 387,242 people, authorities there said on Friday. (Agencies)_____________________________
Last updated: 2023-09-01 HKT 19:25 