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Flights Cancelled in Hong Kong, China's Guangdong as Typhoon Saola Nears

A woman walks past a closed fast food outlet with windows taped up for protection on Lantau island in Hong Kong on September 1, 2023, hours before the expected arrival of Super Typhoon Saola. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP)
A woman walks past a closed fast food outlet with windows taped up for protection on Lantau island in Hong Kong on September 1, 2023, hours before the expected arrival of Super Typhoon Saola. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP)
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Flights Cancelled in Hong Kong, China's Guangdong as Typhoon Saola Nears

A woman walks past a closed fast food outlet with windows taped up for protection on Lantau island in Hong Kong on September 1, 2023, hours before the expected arrival of Super Typhoon Saola. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP)
A woman walks past a closed fast food outlet with windows taped up for protection on Lantau island in Hong Kong on September 1, 2023, hours before the expected arrival of Super Typhoon Saola. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP)

Hundreds of flights were cancelled in China's Guangdong province and Hong Kong as Super Typhoon Saola moved closer to the mainland on Friday, forcing authorities to raise a strong storm advisory and closing businesses, schools and financial markets.

Three tropical cyclones have formed in the northwest Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, with Saola and Haikui already labelled typhoons while Kirogi, the most distant from land, still classified as a tropical storm, according to weather forecasters.

Saola is packing winds of more than 200 kph (125 mph) and is moving towards the coast of eastern Guangdong, the province which encompasses Hong Kong. It could be among the five strongest typhoons to hit Guangdong since 1949, Chinese authorities said on Thursday as they issued their highest typhoon warning.

Saola could make landfall Friday night or Saturday morning as a severe typhoon along the coast from Huidong to Taishan in Guangdong, China's National Meteorological Centre said, which has kept its highest typhoon red warning in place. Hong Kong and neighboring Macau lie in the center of that coastline.

Weather conditions could deteriorate rapidly as the typhoon makes landfall, the Hong Kong observatory said, adding it would consider the need to issue higher cyclone warning signals later on Friday.

Hong Kong has five rankings for typhoons, 1, 3, 8, 9 and the highest 10, and currently has Signal 8 in force.

All schools in Hong Kong will be closed on Friday, despite being the first day of term for many, Reuters quoted the government as saying.

Nearby cities Shenzhen and Guangzhou also closed schools, while tech hub Shenzhen went a step further, suspending work, businesses and financial markets from Friday afternoon.

In Hong Kong on Thursday, crowds were seen jostling at fresh food markets in downtown Wan Chai district with many vegetables already sold out. Supermarkets saw long queues with people stocking up ahead of the storm.

Hong Kong's observatory said it expects heavy rain and violent winds while the city's water level is expected to "rise appreciably" until Saturday, with the potential for serious flooding.

The city's flagship carrier Cathay Pacific said all flights in and out of Hong Kong between 2 p.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday and 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Saturday have been cancelled.

Further flight delays and cancellations may be required based on the typhoon's path on Saturday morning, it said.

By 10:55 a.m. (0255 GMT) Friday, Zhuhai and Shenzhen airports cancelled hundreds of flights, data from Flight Master showed.

Guangdong authorities suspended all trains in and out of the province from 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) Friday to 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) Saturday.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge that connects the three cities will be closed from 3:30 p.m. (0730 GMT) on Friday to ensure of transport safety, the local Southern Metropolis Daily reported, without giving a date for opening of the bridge.

Macau's Weather Observatory said it would raise its wind warning level to Signal 8 between 1 p.m and 3 p.m. on Friday. It said it expects to raise it to the highest Signal 10 early on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Typhoon Haikui is approaching Taiwan and expected to make landfall on the northern part of the island on Sunday before heading towards the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau.

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Greece Fights Dozens of Wildfires in 'Most Difficult Day of Year'

Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou
Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou
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Greece Fights Dozens of Wildfires in 'Most Difficult Day of Year'

Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou
Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire burning in Stamata, near Athens, Greece, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Elias Marcou

Firefighters were battling a series of wildfires near the Greek capital Athens on Sunday evening, as the country braces for another scorching summer.
Greece faces a tough wildfire season after its warmest winter and earliest heatwave on record, with temperatures hitting 44°C (111°F), said AFP.
"Today in Attica two extremely dangerous fires that broke out in residential areas and spread rapidly due to strong winds in Keratea and Stamata were tackled", Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vasilis Kikilias said late on Sunday.
He said there was no longer an active front in Stamata, north of Athens, though there were some minor reignitions in the eastern area of Keratea.
He said "ground forces will remain in the field throughout the night".
Since Sunday midday, the authorities have called for the evacuation of at least eight areas near the capital, with flames destroying cars and houses.
Ert channel reported that a 45-year-old-man died from a cardiac arrest while trying to flee fires in suburban Athens.
According to the police, the man was found unconscious in the yard of a house in Rodopoli and taken to hospital where he died.
"Today is the hardest that the Fire Brigade has faced in this year's firefighting season," fire department spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis said on Sunday afternoon, during an emergency press briefing.
"The situation is very difficult, as strong winds continue to blow, they have not subsided and the outbreaks are many," the mayor of Lavreotiki, Dimitris Loukas, told Athens News Agency Sunday afternoon.
However he said a nearby military air base was not currently in danger from the flames.
Fire brigade spokesman noted that wind speeds had exceeded 60 km per hour in Keratea, while in Stamata, the blaze was fanned by strong northerly winds exceeding 70 km an hour.
Island fires
A fire also broke out Sunday in an industrial zone in Ritsona, near the island of Evia.
Black smoke filled the sky above Ritsona after the fire started in a recycling factory, burning various flammable materials that were in the grounds around it, including tyres and mattresses.
Firefighters are fighting to prevent the flames from spreading beyond the recycling plant to other factories in the area.
The fire also approached a refugee center, but the Athens News Agency reported that this was not believed to be in danger.
Separately, a large wildfire broke out on Serifos island on Saturday afternoon, but was also brought under control by firefighters early Sunday.
"All of southwestern Serifos has burned. We are talking about an area where the fire stopped at the sea," Serifos mayor Konstantinos Revintis told MEGA TV.
The fire caused damage to houses, cottages, warehouses and chapels, according to the mayor.
The Fire Danger Forecast Map issued for Sunday by the Civil Protection Ministry predicted a very high category 4 risk of fire for Attica, the Peloponnese, Crete, the North and South Aegean Regions, and central Greece.
A wildfire ignited Saturday afternoon in the area of Mount Parnitha-- known as "the lungs of Athens" -- was controlled Saturday evening with the help of reinforcements from other regions as well as volunteer firefighters.
More than forty wildfires erupted across Saturday in Greece with wind speeds exceeding 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour, according to fire brigade sources.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Greeks to brace for a difficult wildfire season in his weekly Facebook post on Sunday.
"The difficult times are still ahead of us. Our effort is continuous. In this effort, our allies are new tools that build a new culture of prevention and responsibility," he said.