Macau’s casinos were allowed to reopen from 8am today (Saturday, September 2), following more than nine hours of suspension of operations due to the passage of Typhoon Saola. The city’s gaming venues had been told to temporarily shut before 11pm on Friday, as the weather bureau raised its storm signal to Number 9.
The authorisation for reopening was part of a Chief Executive dispatch published earlier on Saturday in the city’s official gazette.
Land border crossings between Macau and the city of Zhuhai, in neighbouring Guangdong province, started to open gradually from 9am today.
But the public shuttle bus service on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge remained suspended as of Saturday morning.
Ferry services between Hong Kong and Macau were also still suspended, as well as the ferry service between Macau’s Inner Habour and the Wan Zai district in Zhuhai, and ferry services between Macau and Shenzhen.
At lunchtime on Friday, Macau entered a so-called “state of immediate prevention”, activating a special civil protection structure. The weather forecaster raised the highest tropical storm warning on the early hours of Saturday as Typhoon Saola 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 Number 10 storm signal to Number 8 early on Saturday as Typhoon Saola continued to weaken and move away, with the third-highest warning to remain in force at least during Saturday’s morning.
