BBC:
Hong Kong has shut schools and some businesses, while the airport will ground most flights from Tuesday evening as the city braces for a super typhoon – the strongest storm of the year so far.
Fresh food and bread were wiped off supermarket shelves as residents prepared to hunker down, while shop owners piled sandbags in front of their stores.
Super typhoon Ragasa, which killed at least one as it lashed through a remote island in the Philippines on Monday, is due to hit the Asian financial hub later on Tuesday.
Millions could be impacted by the storm, which is expected to move towards northern Vietnam and China’s Guangdong, where authorities have said to prepare for a “catastrophic” situation.
Hong Kong International Airport says it expects “significant disruption to flight operations” from 18:00 local time Tuesday until the next day.
More than 500 Cathay Pacific flights are expected to be cancelled, while Hong Kong Airlines said it would stop all departures from the city.
Many cities in Guangdong province have shut schools and some workplaces, as well as suspended public transportation.
The Chinese city of Shenzhen, which neighbours Hong Kong, has seen 400,000 people evacuated.
In the Philippines, where the storm is referred to as super typhoon Nando, at least one person was killed by a landslide in the country’s nothern Luzon island and hundreds of families were displaced as a result.
More than 10,000 people were evacuated in the Philippines before the storm made landfall on Monday afternoon. Schools and government offices were shut in large parts of the country, including in the capital Manila.
Super typhoon Ragasa – equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane – packed wind gusts of up to 285km/h (177mph) at its highest point on Monday.
Ragasa will “pose a serious threat” to Hong Kong, says Eric Chan, its Chief Secretary for Administration, comparing it to two other typhoons which left behind trails of severe destruction.
Super typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 – to date the most intense typhoon to strike the city – injured 200 people, sunk ships and wrecked infrastructure, with the weather agency estimating economic losses of HK$4.6bn ($592m).
In 2017, typhoon Hato unleashed serious flooding and smashed and injured more than 100 people in the city.
