Super Typhoon Saola prompts flight cancellations in China's megacities

With some of the strongest winds the area has ever experienced, Super Typhoon Saola struck southern China on Friday, practically shutting down the megacities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Tens of millions of people sheltered indoors as flights were cancelled, stock market trading suspended, and Hong Kong's school year was delayed after authorities warned of raising the warning level from T8 to T9 or T10, the city's highest alert, which has only been issued 16 times since World War II.

Saola, a typhoon with sustained winds of 210 km per hour, was 140 kilometres (around 85 miles) east-southeast of Hong Kong by 2pm, prompting Mainland Chinese authorities to issue the highest typhoon warning.

The National Weather Office predicted it could be among the top five strongest typhoons to hit southern Guangdong province since 1949.

"The city will open all shelters for the public to take refuge," said the emergency response department of Shenzhen, home to 17.7 million people.

By the evening, all public transport in Shenzhen will be stopped, and on Saturday, trains into and out of Guangdong will not run from 8pm to 6pm.

"Of course, it's going to affect our life," said Wu Wenlai, 43, who runs a restaurant in a Shenzhen suburb.

"We have to close the restaurant and send all the workers home for two days. My eldest son was planning to fly to Chengdu today for university and his flight has been cancelled now," Wu added.

However, he was laid back by the government's warnings: "We are quite used to it. We usually have several typhoons every year."

Authorities in Hong Kong, across the border from the mainland, warned that Saola could skirt within 50 km of the colony and cause a storm surge that could cause "serious flooding."

"The maximum sea level may be similar to that when Mangkhut hit Hong Kong in 2018," the city's weather observatory said.

Typhoons which form in warm oceans east of the Philippines, frequently hit Southern China in summer and autumn and due to the recent surge of human-induced climate change, the intensity of tropical storms has increased, leading to flash floods and coastal damage.

Hong Kong's streets were deserted on Friday, but last-minute shoppers filled markets to stock up for the weekend, with a shopper named Lee and her daughter praising the government's decision to delay the start of school.

"If this reaches (T10), then there might be traffic disruption. Better to wait until that is over before sending kids to school," Lee said, adding that she bought enough groceries to sustain the family for the weekend.

Hong Kong businesses duct-taped glass displays and windows, while sandbags were stacked by the waterfront in Kowloon to prevent flooding.

Meanwhile, over 300 flights were cancelled on Friday though 600 were still scheduled.

Despite the typhoon's impact, no direct casualties have been reported in the northern Philippines where thousands were displaced as Saola brushed through the region earlier this week