Macau’s casinos were being allowed to reopen from 2am on Thursday (September 25), following 33 hours of suspension of operations due to the passage of Super Typhoon Ragasa. The city’s gaming venues had been told to shut temporarily by 5pm on Tuesday, as the weather bureau raised its tropical cyclone Signal No.8.
The authorisation for reopening was part of a Chief Executive dispatch published late on Wednesday in the city’s official gazette.
Land border crossings between Macau and the city of Zhuhai, in neighbouring Guangdong province, started reopening gradually from 9pm on Wednesday.
At 1pm on Tuesday, Macau entered a so-called “state of immediate prevention”, activating special civil protection arrangements. The weather forecaster raised the highest tropical storm warning – Signal No.10 – in the early hours of Wednesday as the storm was at its closest to 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).
Macau downgraded the maximum No.10 storm signal to Signal No.8 at 4pm on Wednesday as Super Typhoon Ragasa continued to weaken and move away, and was scheduled to downgrade it to Signal No.3 at 11pm.
Ferry services between Hong Kong and Macau are scheduled to resume on Thursday.
