Hong Kong
CNN
—
Typhoon Yagi has quickly developed into a super typhoon on its way to the Chinese holiday island of Hainan, where it is expected to make landfall towards the end of the week.
According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) on Wednesday, Yagi is currently packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph, making it a high-level Category 4 Atlantic hurricane and just 7 mph away from becoming a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane.
“The intensification will continue in the warm water basin of the South China Sea,” the Typhoon Warning Center said.
Just a day ago, Yagi was a tropical storm with peak winds of 55 mph (90 kph). Scientists have found that higher ocean temperatures caused by the human-caused climate crisis are causing storms to intensify more quickly.
The producer is expected to make landfall in southwest China near the northern tip of Hainan on Friday evening.
Often referred to as “China’s Hawaii,” the island offers sandy beaches, good surfing, five-star resorts and duty-free luxury shopping. However, this is not peak tourist season and the island generally has a good track record of weathering strong storms.
According to the Hainan provincial government, intercity bus services on the island have been suspended since midnight on Thursday.
Train and high-speed rail services will be suspended from 6 p.m. local time on Thursday, and all flights departing after 8 p.m. will also be cancelled until midnight on Friday, it said.
Authorities in Hainan have ordered the closure of all tourist attractions as they warned of “massive and destructive” winds.
To prepare for the impact, people were seen taping windows and glass doors to protect them from the gusts, and some placed sandbags around door gaps to prevent flooding.
The Central Meteorological Agency, China’s weather service, issued a red typhoon warning, the most serious alert level, for Hainan and the southern province of Guangdong on Wednesday evening.
Yagi raged in southern Hong Kong on Thursday, prompting the city to cancel kindergartens and at least six flights. Another 24 flights were canceled for Friday.
The local observatory warned that it is likely to issue a more severe storm warning later in the day, which will result in further travel restrictions. If the warning remains in place until Friday, the city’s stock market – one of the largest in Asia – will be suspended.
Education authorities said they would close primary and secondary schools on Friday as they expected strong winds to continue into Friday morning. “Local winds are getting stronger and the weather will worsen,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Yagi, known as Enteng in the Philippines, brought heavy rains across the country earlier this week, killing at least 13 people, Reuters reported. Rainfall totaling 400 millimeters was reported in some parts of Luzon.
