A supertyphoon is intensifying in the Pacific and is forecast to barrel through the Philippines and Taiwan this week before heading to Hong Kong and south China.
Mangkhut, classified by the Hong Kong Observatory as a supertyphoon, is forecast to pack maximum winds of 230 kilometers per hour (143 miles per hour) by Friday before gradually weakening. The typhoon, expected to be closer to south China by the weekend, will bring heavy rains and storm surges on its trail.
In disaster-prone Philippines, where about 20 cyclones pass each year, Mangkhut, which is named after a fruit in Thailand, is forecast to enter Wednesday just as another storm left. Haiyan, another supertyphoon, killed more than 6,300 people in the Southeast Asian country in 2013.