Super Typhoon Mangkhut: Hundreds of thousands flee homes as Philippines braces for direct hit from monster storm, while China raises threat level
Schools have been closed and rescuers and troops placed on full alert in the Philippines. The mega storm is then forecast to head towards Hong Kong and mainland China
Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing their homes in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Mangkhut bears down on the region, while China’s meteorological authority raised a yellow storm alert on Friday.
The alert is the second level on a four-tier warning system, and the authority has predicted the monster storm would make landfall near western Guangdong and eastern Hainan late Sunday, or early Monday.
In Hong Kong, a very hot weather warning was issued by the Hong Kong Observatory on Friday morning, with temperatures expected to rise to 35 degrees Celsius on Saturday as the city awaits the arrival of Mangkhut, which is packing sustained winds of 205km/h (127mph) and gusts measured at 255km/h.
At noon, Mangkhut, which is the equivalent of a category 5 Atlantic hurricane, was centred about 570km east-northeast of Manila. It is forecast to move west-northwest at about 25km/h towards the vicinity of Luzon, before coming within 200km of Hong Kong on Sunday evening.
With a massive rain band 900km (560 miles) wide, combined with seasonal monsoon rains, the typhoon could bring heavy to intense rains that could set off landslides and flash floods in the Philippines, forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in Hawaii said. Storm warnings have been raised in 25 provinces across the main northern island of Luzon, restricting sea and air travel.
Schools were closed, and rescuers and troops placed on full alert in the country’s north, with 4 million people in the path of the super typhoon.
As Mangkhut edged closer to Hong Kong, heavy rain, squalls and storm surges were expected to follow and pose a threat to the region.