Wang Jingli

wangjingli0715@163.com

ALL schools and parks in the city have been closed, and trains and flights suspended in anticipation of the arrival of Typhoon Saola.

Local forecasters raised the alert for Typhoon Saola from blue to yellow at 6 p.m. Thursday, the third-highest in the provincial five-tier warning system, as the super typhoon could seriously affect the city.

The Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau released a notice Thursday, ordering the start of the school year for primary and high schools and kindergartens to be delayed until Monday. Schools were originally scheduled to start Friday.

Universities and colleges should adjust the return time of students and unnecessary outdoor activities should be suspended, as per the notice.

All inbound and outbound flights at the Shenzhen airport will be halted from 12 p.m. Friday until further notice. Ferry routes between the airport terminal and Zhuhai, Macao and Hong Kong were suspended from 12 p.m. Thursday.

Major libraries and indoor swimming pools have been temporarily closed. Citizens can follow their official WeChat accounts for updates.

All businesses, schools, public transport and productions will be halted Friday in Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone, the zone’s government said in a notice Thursday.

Meanwhile, more than 4,000 trains using the Guangdong sections of railway lines and operating from Thursday to Monday will be suspended, including the Guangzhou-Shenzhen intercity line and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, according to the China Railway Guangzhou Group Co. Ltd.

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Other typical safety precautions include recalling fishing boats to port and moving people who work on coastal fish and shrimp farms further inland. So far, more than 1,000 boats have been recalled to port with all people involved being moved inland in Shenzhen.

The super typhoon, located about 405 kilometers southeast of Shenzhen at 3 p.m. Thursday, was moving northwest at a speed of 10 to 15 kilometers per hour to approach the coastal areas of eastern and central Guangdong.

It might make landfall somewhere in the coastal areas stretching from Guangdong’s Huilai County to Hong Kong on Friday afternoon or night, or move southwest to pass through the waters off eastern Guangdong, according to Shenzhen’s weather forecast center. There is a high risk of severe wind and rain impact on Shenzhen, and the possibility of a direct attack on Shenzhen cannot be ruled out.

Heavy rain and strong gusts are expected at the weekend.

Meanwhile, multiple other cities in Guangdong Province have delayed the start of the new school semester and suspended train operations.

China’s national observatory Thursday renewed a red alert for Typhoon Saola, the most severe warning in the country’s four-tier typhoon warning system, as the ninth typhoon of this year is expected to bring gales and heavy rain to southern and eastern parts of the country.