Signal No. 8 remains in effect, 9 and 10 at early hours of tomorrow

Typhoon Signal No. 8 and Red Storm surge remain in force as the Super Typhoon continues to approach. At 10 p.m., Ragasa was well inside the 300-kilometer circle, with the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) estimating it to be about 260km Southeast of Macau.

In their forecast, SMG continues to note a path following a West-northwest direction and moving at around 20km/h towards the western coast of the Pearl River Estuary.

An update on incidents made by the Civil Protection Operations Centre (COPC) noted four light incidents, all related to the removal of objects that are at risk of falling or that have fallen (concrete, signboards, windows, canopies, or other hanging objects).

In addition, the COPC, announced that the Macau International Airport flight operations for today called for 75 cancellations, 2 delays, and 4 rescheduling, advancing also that 128 flights have been canceled for tomorrow, noting the increased impact of Ragasa on Wednesday’s operations.

At the emergency shelters a total of 600 people have been attended as of 10 p.m. with 554 of these remaining under care of the Social Welfare Bureau. The majority of these people are people that were lodged in the shelters after being evacuated from their homes due to flooding risk.

This was a quiet scenario five hours after the hoisting of the Signal No. 8 and nine hours after the issuing of the Orange Storm surge warning without any reports of flooding.

Also according to the latest forecast of SMG on the typhoon track and intensity, Ragasa has been adopting a track slightly more distant to Macau than initially forecasted allied with a reduction of the wind speed at the center that, in the last couple of hours, showed a reduction from 215 km/h to 195 km/h.

Still, it is forecasted that Ragasa will enter the 100km circle, with its impact to be more significant at that time.

Authorities expect to hoist the Typhoon Signal No. 9 between midnight and 2 a.m. on September 24 and Signal No. 10 (the maximum level) between 4 and 6 a.m.

According to a active forecast model provided by the website Windy.com, the peak of the impact of Ragasa should occur between 8 and 11 a.m. tomorrow.

SMG also announced that if Ragasa directly hits Macau, there is the possibility of issuing the Black Storm surge warning, the highest of the five levels of Storm surge and that indicates major flooding with floodwater reaching above 2.5 meter from road level.