Hong Kong’s airport is considering suspending all flights for 36 hours starting Tuesday evening for the first time as Super Typhoon Ragasa moves towards the city, the Post has learned.
It is understood that the Hong Kong Airport Authority is looking into the drastic option of shutting down the terminal from 6pm on Tuesday until 6am on Thursday amid “serious threats” posed by Ragasa, which is expected to bring hurricane-force winds with speeds of up to 220km/h (137mph) over the coming days.
The weather forecaster said on Monday that it would issue the No 1 typhoon signal at 12.20pm and consider upgrading it to the No 3 alert later in the evening as Ragasa approached the city at a “relatively high” speed.
As of 5am, Ragasa was crossing the Luzon Strait with a maximum sustained wind near the centre at 230km/h.
“Because of its wide circulation and fast-moving speed, Ragasa will pose a considerable threat to the coast of Guangdong,” Choy Chun-wing, a senior scientific officer with the forecaster, told a radio programme.
Unlike Mangkhut, which struck Hong Kong in 2018, Ragasa was not expected to make a major landfall before coming close to the city; therefore, the threat could be considerably larger, Choy added.
