Typhoon Usagi causes chaos in Hong Kong

The year’s most powerful typhoon was grinding closer to Hong Kong yesterday, forcing hundreds of flights to be cancelled and shutting down shipping after pummelling island communities in the Philippines and Taiwan with heavy rains and fierce winds.

Typhoon Usagi was expected to make landfall just north of Hong Kong late last night or early this morning, with forecasters warning that it posed a “severe threat” to the southern Chinese city.

Usagi — Japanese for rabbit — was classified as a severe typhoon, packing sustained winds of 175km/h, with gusts of up to 213km/h.

The storm was downgraded from a supertyphoon on Saturday — when its sustained winds fell below 241km/h — as it passed through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan, likely sparing residents in both places from the most destructive winds near its eye.

In the Philippines, Usagi left at least two people dead and two others missing, while in Taiwan, nine people were hurt by falling trees on Kinmen island off China’s coast.

By yesterday evening, the typhoon was about 210km east of Hong Kong, moving west at 20km/h, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

Usagi was expected to skirt Hong Kong about 100km to the north between last night and this morning.