Casino companies with businesses in Macau are to experience the effects of Typhoon Saola, which is already disrupting travel and commerce in Macau, Hong Kong and in some southern parts of mainland China. The tropical storm is expected to be closest to Macau in the early hours of Saturday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds, according to the city’s weather bureau.
The Hong Kong Observatory upgraded its storm warning signal to Number 8 on Friday (September 1), after issuing the Number 3 signal the day before. The move brought the city to an effective standstill, with most businesses, schools and the stock exchange shut.
Macau issued the Number 3 storm signal in the evening of Thursday, and is expected to raise it to Number 8 around lunchtime on Friday.
The Macau weather bureau said on Friday morning there was a “moderate” chance it would issue the highest tropical storm warning on the early hours of Saturday as Typhoon Saola approached the city.
The city has five levels of tropical storm warning. They range from 1 (the lowest and least intense) through to 3, 8, 9 and 10 (the highest and most dangerous).
Ferry services between Hong Kong and Macau were suspended late on Thursday, said Macau’s Marine and Water Bureau in an update that same day.
The ferry service between Macau’s Inner Habour and the Wan Zai district in Zhuhai was suspended this Friday, and ferry services between Macau and Shenzhen, in mainland China, had already been halted on Thursday.
The public shuttle bus service on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge was also suspended on Friday morning.
Several flights to and from Macau International Airport had already been cancelled, and the airport is to halt all flights once the Number 8 storm signal is hoisted.
Saola, classified as a super typhoon, has been moving through the region for days, prompting evacuations in the Philippines and school closures and travel disruptions in Taiwan.
The storm, with winds of more than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour), is expected to move towards the coast of eastern Guangdong, Macau’s neighbouring province on the Chinese mainland. 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.
In September 2018, Typhoon Mangkhut – a category 10 storm – saw Macau’s first blanket casino pause caused by weather-related reasons. The city’s Statistics and Census Service estimated that Typhoon Mangkhut caused economic losses to the city amounting to MOP1.55 billion (US$191.9 million), including MOP960 million in losses to the gaming industry.
