HONG KONG - Cathay Pacific Airways on Saturday announced plans to cancel all flights as the territory braced for the arrival of Super Typhoon Usagi, the most powerful storm of the year.
A local resident rides a bicycle beside the riverbank in Hsintien in New Taipei City as Typhoon Usagi approaches on Friday. (AFP Photo)
Usagi, forecast to be closest to Hong Kong on Sunday and Monday, could pose a "severe threat" to the city, the Hong Kong Observatory said on its website.
Cathay Pacific flights in and out of the territory would be cancelled from 6pm local time Sunday, the airline said, adding that services would gradually resume on Monday "if weather conditions permit".
Dragonair, a sister airline, will cancel flights for the same period.
Hong Kong's international airport would remain open, authorities told AFP.
Usagi, packing sustained winds of 240 kilometres per hour with gusts of nearly 300 km/h, brought torrential rain and strong winds to the Philippines and Taiwan Saturday.
As of Friday night, 309 people in Taiwan had been evacuated, the National Fire Agency said. More than 20,000 households lost electricity, Taiwan Power said.
Usagi will probably land on the central-eastern coast of China’s Guangdong province on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, China's Meteorological Administration said.
Usagi weakened slightly on Saturday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 184 kilometres an hour and gusts as strong as 227 km/h, Taiwan's weather bureau said.
Hong Kong's weather observatory hoisted Typhoon Standby Signal 1 at 10.40am local time.
"Super Typhoon Usagi will come rather close to the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary [Sunday and Monday] and pose a severe threat to Hong Kong," said the obervatory's website.
Usagi is the biggest tropical storm globally this year by wind speed, said Cheng Ming-Dean, director of Taiwan’s weather bureau forecast centre. At its current maximum sustained windspeed, Usagi is equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning "devastating damage will occur".
Well-built framed homes may incur major damage or removal of roof decking, according to the scale, posted on the US National Weather Service website.
China has upgraded the storm warning to orange, the second-highest level, from yellow, the third-highest, Xinhua reported.
A super typhoon is the most intense tropical cyclone on the scale, with a maximum sustained wind speed reaching 185 km/h or more, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
The storm has already affected parts of the Philippines. A total of 242 people from 69 families fled their homes on Wednesday due to flooding and were staying in temporary shelters.