China now! A historic typhoon in Hong Kong! 460,000 people have been evacuated!

As Typhoon Saola approaches China, expected to make landfall late Friday night, local authorities say more than 460,000 people have been evacuated in southern Guangdong province, while schools, businesses and financial markets have been closed in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Forecasters say that while Saola has lost its “super typhoon“ status as wind speeds dropped from 240 kilometers per hour to 220 kilometers per hour, it remains the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. Power outages, wind damage and coastal flooding due to storm surge are expected. Chinese officials said the hurricane could become one of the five strongest ever to hit the province. China’s state-run Xihua news agency said nearly 85,000 fishing boats in Guangdong province had returned to their harbors and 82 coastal resorts were temporarily closed. Hundreds of flights were expected to be canceled in Hong Kong on the eve of the storm. Xinhua reports that Jieyang Chaoshan International Airport canceled 60 flights on Thursday, while another airport in the province, Huizhou Pingtan, plans to cancel 21 flights on Friday.