Typhoon Nuri

August 22, 2008, 11:00 a.m. Storm approaching

We have a Typhoon on the way. We did not have one all of last year. I hear that there was one this Summer that blew through quite quickly. We received a call from our director last night that school would be called off today. The word "typhoon" comes from the Chinese 颱風(T) / 台风(S) (pinyin: tái fēng; Jyutping: toi fung, according to wikipedia. The name of this Typhoon is Nuri (Karen). They started stacking sand bags everywhere yesterday. So I think the expectation is for a lot of rain. Here is a pic of what it looks like right now.

Typhoon Nuri barrels into Hong Kong

Agence France-Presse

HONG KONG - Typhoon Nuri lashed Hong Kong with heavy rain and strong winds on Friday, sparking major flight delays, disruption to public transport and a halt to trade on the city's financial markets.

Many offices in the southern Chinese territory were closed, and ferry services suspended as meteorologists issued the level-eight storm signal, signifying the likelihood of gale-force winds.

At 11:00 am, the typhoon was centered about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east-southeast of Hong Kong and was moving towards the city at a speed of about 14 kilometers an hour.

"Nuri will be rather close to Hong Kong this afternoon and tonight with a chance of a direct hit," a spokesman for the Hong Kong Observatory said.

Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific and its sister company Dragonair announced that all flights would be cancelled for 12 hours starting at 2:00 pm (0600 GMT).

Organizers of the Olympic equestrian events staged in the city breathed a sigh of relief, as the competition ended Thursday with the show-jumping final.

Seven people were killed when Nuri (Philippine codename: Karen) slammed into the northern Philippines on Wednesday, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers an hour and gusts of up to 170 kilometers per hour.

August is Hong Kong's hottest month and typhoons can often force the entire city to close down -- as happened three days before the start of the Olympic Games, when Severe Tropical Storm Kammuri delayed the arrival of some horses.