Weakened Usagi misses Hong Kong

Makes landfall 120 kilometers north of the city.

Despite being downgraded from a super typhoon to a severe typhoon with 175 km/h sustained winds, Usagi lashed Hong Kong with fierce winds and heavy rains.

Typhoon Usagi swung away from Hong Kong at the last minute yesterday morning and made landfall northeast of the city. Forecasters had earlier warned that it posed a severe threat to Hong Kong.

Usagi was rated a severe typhoon with sustained winds of 109 mph. It was downgraded from a super typhoon on Saturday when its sustained winds fell below 150 mph after passing through the Luzon strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan.

The Hong Kong Observatory repeated the No. 8 Storm Signal at 4 a.m. yesterday, while downgrading Usagi to a tropical cyclone as it moves gradually away from the city.

The storm, ranked the world’s strongest typhoon this year, landed near the city of Shanwei in Guangdong, about 140 kilometers northeast of Hong Kong and was moving west-northwest at about 22 kilometers an hour, the Hong Kong Observatory said at 4 a.m. yesterday. Hong Kong recorded maximum sustained winds of 73 kilometers an hour.

HKIA said 370 arriving and departing flights were canceled and another 64 delayed. Ferry services between Hong Kong and nearby Macau and outlying islands were suspended yesterday as the observatory raised the No. 8 storm warning.