Typhoon Nida is bearing down on southeast China, including Hong Kong, with heavy rain, strong winds and high surf after soaking the northern Philippines Sunday.
Nida is expected to make landfall early Tuesday morning, local time (Hong Kong is 12 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern daylight time), as the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Radar from the Hong Kong Observatory indicated rainbands from Nida had already wrapped into southeast China, including Hong Kong, home to over seven million Monday evening.
Forecast
Strong, damaging winds are possible near where the center makes landfall.(FORECAST: Hong Kong)
Current Information and Forecast
Parts of China are still recovering from destructive and deadly floods that have already affected the country this summer.
Nida will be the first typhoon to track within 65 nautical miles of Hong Kong since Usagi on September 22, 2013.
Preparations Underway in Hong Kong and China
Kindergarten classes and classes at some special schools have been suspended as Typhoon Nida approaches Hong Kong, the Education Bureau said in a statement Monday, as reported by the South China Post. This includes "schools for children with physical disability and schools for children with intellectual disability," the statement said.“These schools, however, should keep their premises open and implement contingency measures to look after arriving students. They should ensure that conditions are safe before allowing students to return home.”
More than 100 flights in and out of Hong Kong International Airport have ben canceled ahead of the approaching storm. Flagship carrier Cathay Pacific and its subsidiary Dragonair canceled all of their flights in and out of the southern Chinese city for 16 hours, from 10 p.m. on Monday until at least 2 p.m. on Tuesday, AisaOne reports.
Meanwhile, AirAsia has canceled flights to seven destinations in China on August 1 and 2 due to the storm.
Landfall in the Philippines
Satellite image of Nida (Carina) Sunday evening, local time near the northern Philippine's Luzon Island.(NOAA)
Nida (Carina) had dumped more than 10 inches of rain on the northern Philippine town of Tuguegarao in the 24 hours ending 8 p.m. local time on Sunday. The Philippines are 12 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.
No deaths or injuries had been reported as of Monday night, Philippine time, but Presidential Communications Sec. Martin Andanar told CNN Philippines that national emergency agencies are on still standby, in case of flooding and landslides. Andanar said family food packs have already been prepositioned, with 30,000 food packs in Region 1 and 1,900 food packs in Region 8.
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