Typhoon Ragasa, the most powerful storm recorded on Earth this year, has hit East Asia with terrifying force. It has brought several Asian megacities to a standstill, and in Taiwan it has killed at least 17 people, with more than a dozen more missing.
In the Philippines, at least three people were killed after the storm triggered widespread flooding and landslides. But the island nation was in some ways lucky: Ragasa made landfall on the remote Batanes and Babuyan islands, which are some 60 miles north of the most populous island of Luzon.
