Typhoon Koinu tracked towards China’s resort island of Hainan yesterday night after skirting Hong Kong, bringing heavy rains and powerful gusts while prompting the closure of transport services and schools in the financial hub.
Koinu comes just a month after Hong Kong was lashed by Typhoon Saola, which triggered its highest “T10” storm alert.
A week after that, the city experienced its highest rainfall in nearly 140 years, flooding subway stations and malls, and causing landslides. Typhoon Koinu was at the third-highest alert in Hong Kong’s warning system for most of the day. It was upgraded to “T9” for more than four hours - when the typhoon was closest to the city - before the observatory dropped it back down to “T8” at 11.50pm local time (1550GMT).
“In the past couple of hours, Koinu tracked westwards steadily. The associated hurricane force winds are gradually departing from the seas south of Hong Kong,” said the observatory, issuing a map that showed Koinu’s path headed directly for China’s island province of Hainan. It was about 70kms south-southwest of Hong Kong around midnight and was forecast to edge closer to the western part of the Pearl River Estuary.
Despite the storm downgrade to “T8” - which will be in place until 11am today - the observatory warned the public “precautions should not yet be relaxed”, and said the gales generated by Koinu were expected to persist. The “T8” warning level is triggered when a storm’s maximum sustained wind speed reaches 117kms per hour. Koinu’s were observed at 145kms per hour.
Around 90 flights were cancelled yesterday and 130 others delayed throughout the day due to the storm, according to Hong Kong’s Airport Authority.
Daycare centres, cargo terminals, ferries and buses suspended operations yesterday, while schools - also closed - will remain shuttered today.