Hong Kong lowered a typhoon alert on Sunday evening as Typhoon Roke weakened, with the local airport and transport authorities rushing to restore normal operations in the Asian financial hub. The Hong Kong Observatory on Sunday morning raised its typhoon alert to 8 - close to the top rating of 10 - as Roke was expected to make landfall over the eastern part of the city.
A reading of 8 means businesses, government offices and schools stay closed, including banks, port operations and the Hong Kong stock exchange. The alert was lowered to 1 by evening. At 6 pm local time, Roke was estimated to be 180 kilometres west-northwest of Hong Kong and was forecast to move west or west-northwest at about 20 kilometres per hour across inland Guangdong and continue to weaken, the observatory said. Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong, issued a level 3 alert, the China Meteorological Administration said on Saturday night.