Hong Kong International Airport is set to passenger flights for 36 hours, from 8 p.m. on Sept. 23 to 8 a.m. on Sept. 25, with airlines starting to cut schedules early, Bloomberg reported.

About 700 flights have been disrupted. Cathay Pacific has canceled more than 500 flights from Tuesday night to Thursday morning, and many other international carriers have followed suit, advising passengers to check updates regularly.

Singapore Airlines also canceled flights to and from Shenzhen on Sept. 23 and 24, and rescheduled some services to and from Hong Kong, according to The Straits Times.

Budget carrier Scoot said six flights between Singapore and Hong Kong on Sept. 23 and 24 were canceled.

China’s coastal provinces have organized evacuations and stopped ferries, with Shenzhen expected to ground all flights on Tuesday night.

Many air routes in China’s Fujian have been canceled, with further suspensions expected.

In Guangdong, multiple areas have moved residents to safety.

Typhoon Ragasa disrupted domestic transport in Taiwan on Monday, forcing the cancelation of all flights to outlying islands and the suspension of 88 ferry services on 13 routes, according to local carriers and transportation authorities.

Flights to Hualien and Taitung in eastern Taiwan were suspended for the entire day.

Most Taiwan Railway services on the North Link Line, South Link Line and Taitung Line before midday Tuesday have been suspended, Focus Taiwan reported.

The railway corporation said that passengers with tickets originally scheduled for trains disrupted can apply for a refund free of handling fees at any station by presenting their unused tickets.

In the Phillipines where the typhoon slammed into Panuitan island off Cagayan province on Monday afternoon, domestic flights in northern provinces, especially to Laoag, Tuguegarao, and Basco, have been canceled while fishing boats and inter-island ferries were prohibited from leaving ports due to rough seas.

Ragasa is forecast to remain at super-typhoon intensity with maximum winds of 202–220 km per hour on Tuesday, before entering a rapid weakening phase on Wednesday and Thursday on course to Guangzhou, China.

Credits: Asia

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The carrier said Hong Kong‘s Airport will be closed from 8pm September 23 to 8am on September 25 in a statement, adding that it would contact customers who were affected.

Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said it expected to cancel more than 500 flights.

“Starting at 6pm tomorrow, September 23, Cathay Pacific’s passenger flights arriving at and departing from Hong Kong International Airport will cease operations until resuming during daytime hours on Thursday,” a spokeswoman for the airline said at a Monday press conference.

Ragasa is crossing the Luzon Strait between southern Taiwan and northern Philippines, and is expected to hit Hong Kong and southern China on Tuesday.

The weather is expected to deteriorate rapidly from Tuesday and gale-force winds will impact the financial hub on Wednesday, with winds expected to reach hurricane force offshore and on high ground.

Across the city, residents started stockpiling daily necessities.

Long queues formed at supermarkets where products like milk had already sold out, while vegetables were being sold for more than triple their normal price at fresh markets, according to Reuters witnesses.

The Education Bureau announced Monday that all schools will be suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The city’s hospital authority said public hospitals have implemented special measures to ensure emergency services are not affected during the storm.

The Civil Aviation Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Meanwhile, the nearby Chinese city of Shenzhen is planning a mass evacuation of its residents.

“The city plans to relocate and resettle approximately 400,000 people, including those residing in temporary shelters, low-lying areas, and coastal regions,” a post on Shenzhen’s Emergency Management WeChat account late Sunday said. 

Ragasa lashes the Philippines

More than 10,000 people have sheltered in schools and evacuation centres in the Philippines on Monday as heavy rains and gale-force winds from the super typhoon lashed the country’s far north.

The sparsely populated Babuyan Islands lie about 740 kilometers south of Taiwan, where smaller-scale evacuations were also underway.

Credits: Qantas

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