This evening Macau’s Chief Executive announced that all casinos must temporarily suspend operations if a typhoon signal higher than T8 is issued. Within minutes of the announcement, it was confirmed that typhoon signal T9 would be hoisted at 11pm this evening, thus triggering the Macau-wide casino closure.
The directive states that “the Macao Special Administrative Region is under the impact of a super typhoon and measures are being taken to protect the lives and property of the public.”
Super Typhoon Saola is approaching Macau, and the Macau government issued a typhoon signal T8 at 2pm today. A red storm surge warning was issued at 7pm.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge was closed at 6pm, and all Zhuhai-Macau border crossings ceased from 8pm this evening.
The Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau is advising there is a “medium” chance of the highest warning level, T10, being hoisted in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Typhoon signal T10 was hoisted in Hong Kong for the super typhoon at 8:15pm this evening. This is the first time Hong Kong has seen a T10 typhoon since 2018.
The last time Macau experienced a severe T10 typhoon was in 2018, when typhoon Mangkhut devastated the city. It was the first T10 signal in 19 years.
Typhoon Higos in 2020 was also classified T10, but caused little damage and the classification was widely viewed as an overreaction caused by the recent memory of typhoon Mangkhut.
Around 7:30pm frontline gaming staff told IAG that casinos are still open “for the time being” and they have not received any instruction from their company, but in the past 30 minutes, gaming staff informed IAG that they had been told to expect the casinos to close at 11pm.
Update at 8am on Sat 2 Sep: The T10 signal was hoisted at 1am. The T8 signal was hoisted at 6am and casinos around Macau are now gradually re-opening.
Update at 2pm on Sat 2 Sep: Super Typhoon Saola moved away from Macau and weakened faster than expected. The Bureau of Meteorology has advised the T3 signal will be hoisted at 3pm.
