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INTERNATIONAL – Expected with fear, it has arrived. Typhoon Saola swept across southern China on Saturday morning, September 2, after uprooting trees and breaking windows in Hong Kong. as seen in the video at the top of the articlealthough with less strong winds than expected.
The China National Meteorological Center said Saola, downgraded from super typhoon to severe typhoon, made landfall south of Zhuhai city in Guangdong province around 3:30 a.m. Saturday (8:30 p.m. GMT Friday). This typhoon threatened to be the strongest to hit the region in decades.
There was a feeling of apocalypse in the streets of Hong Kong before his arrival. “Don’t go outside and stay away from windows and outside doors. “Make sure you have protection,” the Hong Kong Meteorological Observatory recommended on Friday, September 1.
On Waglan Island in Hong Kong, “winds reached a 10-minute average of 160 km/h around 9:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. Paris). For comparison, during the December 1999 storm in Troyes we reached 100 km/h in 10 minutes,” notes meteorologist Guillaume Séchet.
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Hong Kong is already affected
Tens of millions of people in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and other major cities in southern China were locked in their homes on Friday, September 1, as Saola approached.
More than 880,000 people were evacuated in two Chinese provinces before the typhoon hit, hundreds of flights were canceled and trees were already uprooted in deserted, rain-soaked streets in Hong Kong, where the return of classes was postponed.
MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP
A tree uprooted by the strong winds of Super Typhoon Saola in Hong Kong on September 1, 2023.
Images taken in Hong Kong on Friday, September 1st show heavy rain and particularly strong winds. Storefronts and storefronts of shops and residences were protected with tape, while office buildings near Victoria Harbor barricaded entrances to prevent water ingress.
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“Saola could become the strongest typhoon since 1949 to hit the Pearl River Delta,” which includes several major cities such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Macau, the National Meteorological Center predicted on the social network Weibo.
Hong Kong authorities raised the alert level at the end of the day on Friday from T8 to T9 and then to T10, the highest level issued only 16 times since World War II.
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Vigilance remains essential
At 3:40 a.m. (8:40 p.m. GMT), after more than seven hours below T10, Hong Kong moved to level T8. But with gusts of up to 139 km/h, authorities urged residents to remain vigilant.
“Some places are still affected by wind gusts… Precautionary measures should not be relaxed yet,” the Hong Kong Meteorological Observatory said at 8 a.m. local time (0000 GMT).
Southern China is frequently hit by typhoons, which form in the warm oceans east of the Philippines in summer and fall and then move west. Although they can temporarily disrupt operations in cities like Hong Kong and Macau, typhoons cause far fewer deaths and damage thanks to stricter building standards and better flood management systems.
Climate change has increased the intensity of tropical storms, experts say, as more rainfall and stronger gusts lead to flash floods and coastal damage.
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