Flights scrapped, businesses shut in Hong Kong, Guangdong as super typhoon Saola nears

The Asian financial hub of Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong cancelled hundreds of flights and evacuated nearly 800,000 people Friday as the imminent arrival of Typhoon Saola forced closures of businesses, schools and financial markets, according to Reuters.

Packing winds of around 200 kph (125 mph), the super typhoon could make landfall late on Friday or early on Saturday in Guangdong, and rate among the five strongest to hit the populous province since 1949, authorities have warned.

The weather will deteriorate rapidly as the typhoon makes landfall, Hong Kong weather officials said, with chances of storm surges of about 3 metres (10 feet) higher than the normal tide and maximum water levels reaching a record.

Weather authorities in China 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.

Saola is one of three tropical cyclones to have formed in the northwest Pacific Ocean and South China Sea. The second, Haikui, is approaching Taiwan, and is set to hit the island on Sunday before heading towards China's province of Fujian.

The third, Kirogi, the most distant from land, was still classed as a tropical storm.

Nearly 85,000 fishing boats operating off the coast of Guangdong had returned to port.

Shenzhen, a city of more than 17 million, suspended work, businesses and financial markets from Friday afternoon, warning that destructive winds could lash it through Saturday.

Saolo is small in size but strong in intensity, Chinese meteorologists told Chinese state media.