Super Typhoon Saola Disrupts Hong Kong and Shenzhen

1. Hong Kong may raise its typhoon warning to the highest level, T10.
2. Mainland China also issues top-level typhoon warning for Saola.
3. Residents brace for disruptions, with memories of past typhoons affecting daily life.

Super Typhoon Saola posed a significant threat to southern China, bringing some of the region’s strongest winds. As a result, the major cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen were compelled to virtually shut down. This prompted tens of millions of people to seek shelter indoors, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, suspension of stock market trading, and a delay in the start of the school year in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong faced the possibility of a direct hit by the typhoon, prompting authorities to consider raising the warning level from T8 to T9 or T10, which are the city’s highest alerts and have been issued only 16 times since World War II. As of 2 pm (0600 GMT), Saola was located 140 kilometers east-southeast of Hong Kong, with sustained winds of 210 km per hour.

Mainland Chinese authorities had already issued the highest typhoon warning for Saola, expressing concerns that it could be one of the top five strongest typhoons to hit southern Guangdong province since 1949. Shenzhen, with a population of 17.7 million, activated all shelters for public refuge, and public transportation services in the city were scheduled to halt by the evening, with train services in and out of Guangdong suspended from 8 pm to 6 pm on Saturday.

Residents in the affected areas were bracing for disruptions in their daily lives, with businesses closing and travel plans being disrupted. Despite the government warnings, some locals, like Wu Wenlai, a restaurant owner in a Shenzhen suburb, expressed resilience, stating that they were accustomed to dealing with several typhoons annually.

In Hong Kong, authorities warned of the potential for Saola to pass within 50 kilometers of the territory, bringing the risk of a storm surge and “serious flooding.” They noted that the maximum sea level could be similar to that experienced during Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, which resulted in more than 300 injuries and significant damage in Hong Kong, including tree destruction and widespread flooding. In mainland China, Typhoon Mangkhut affected over three million people in southern provinces, resulting in six fatalities.

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