Hong Kong rushed to prepare for the arrival of Super Typhoon Ragasa on Tuesday, with officials warning of a "serious threat" comparable to some of the most destructive storms in the city's recent history.
Ragasa was generating winds with maximum sustained speeds of 220 kilometres per hour at its centre as it churned across the South China Sea early on Tuesday, according to Hong Kong's weather service.
Across the city, residents started stockpiling daily necessities.
Qantas has suspended all flights to Hong Kong for 36 hours as the Asian financial hub prepares for Typhoon Ragasa, one of its strongest super typhoons in years.
The carrier said Hong Kong's Airport would be closed from 8pm September 23 to 8am on September 25 in a statement, adding that it would contact customers who were affected.
Hong Kong said its airport would remain open, but operations would be scaled down.
Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said it expected to cancel more than 500 flights.
"Starting at 6pm tomorrow, September 23, Cathay Pacific's passenger flights arriving at and departing from Hong Kong International Airport will cease operations until resuming during daytime hours on Thursday," a spokeswoman for the airline said at a Monday press conference.
Long queues formed at supermarkets where products like milk had already sold out, while vegetables were being sold for more than triple their normal price at fresh markets, according to Reuters witnesses.
The Education Bureau announced Monday that all schools will be suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The city's hospital authority said public hospitals have implemented special measures to ensure emergency services are not affected during the storm.
The Civil Aviation Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Meanwhile, the nearby Chinese city of Shenzhen ordered a mass evacuation of its residents.
"The city plans to relocate and resettle approximately 400,000 people, including those residing in temporary shelters, low-lying areas, and coastal regions," a post on Shenzhen's Emergency Management WeChat account late Sunday said.
Ragasa lashes the Philippines
More than 10,000 people have sheltered in schools and evacuation centres in the Philippines on Monday as heavy rains and gale-force winds from the super typhoon lashed the country's far north.
The sparsely populated Babuyan Islands lie about 740 kilometres south of Taiwan, where smaller-scale evacuations were also underway.
The Filipino government suspended work and classes across Manila and large parts of Luzon as outer rainbands began lashing the region, prompting warnings of power outages, landslides, floods, and dangerous seas.
The threat of flooding from Ragasa comes just a day after thousands of Filipinos took to the streets to protest a growing corruption scandal involving flood control projects that were shabbily constructed or never completed.
ABC/Wires
