Closing summary
Super Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, has made landfall in southern China. After killing 15 people in Taiwan and lashing Hong Kong with ferocious winds and heavy rains, Typhoon Ragasa made landfall in the southern Chinese city of Yangjiang in the Guangdong province, China’s National Meteorological Centre reported on Wednesday.
In Taiwan’s eastern Hualien county, 17 people remained missing after a barrier lake overflowed and sent a wall of water into a town, the fire department said on Wednesday. Ragasa’s outer rim has drenched the island since Monday. Many residents in the tourist town of Guangfu complained there was insufficient warning from authorities, usually used to moving people out of potential danger zones swiftly as the island is frequently hit by typhoons.
As rains inundated Taiwan, Hong Kong grappled with huge waves that crashed over areas of the Asian financial hub’s eastern and southern shoreline. The water rushed along pavements and submerged some roads and residential properties.
Typhoon Ragasa formed over the western Pacific last week. Fuelled by warm seas and favourable atmospheric conditions, the tropical cyclone rapidly intensified to become a Category 5 super typhoon on Monday with winds exceeding 260kph (162mph). It has since weakened, but was still powerful enough to bring down trees and power lines.
More than 2 million people have been evacuated across Guangdong province in southern China, and the ministry for emergencies dispatched tens of thousands of tents, folding beds, lighting equipment and other rescue supplies, Chinese state media reported. Some shops and restaurants in the province parked large rented trucks in front of storefronts in an attempt to shield them from the storm, local media reported.
Hong Kong will lower its typhoon signal to three from eight after 12.20pm GMT (1.20pm BST) on Wednesday, the city’s weather forecast agency said. The hospital authority said at least 90 people had been injured by the typhoon, while the government had opened 50 temporary shelters, within which 885 sought refuge.
Hong Kong’s observatory said Typhoon Ragasa had maximum sustained winds near the centre of about 195kph (120mph) and skirted about 100 kilometers (62 miles) to the south. Hong Kong categorises cyclones with sustained winds of 185kph or stronger as super typhoons to make residents extra vigilant about intense storms.
In the gambling hub of Macau, next to Hong Kong, casinos were forced to shutter their gambling areas. One user on China’s Xiaohongshu app showed videos of doors being sealed at a casino resort for protection against gales and debris.
Drone shots showed flooding in a Philippine town north of the capital, Manila, after heavy rain from Super Typhoon Ragasa hit the area. The country’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, ordered the country’s disaster response agency to go on full alert and mobilised all government agencies in response to Ragasa, which swept through the northern Philippines after making landfall on Monday.
Ahead of the arrival of hurricane-force winds and torrential rain on Wednesday, about 80% of the aircraft belonging to the four main airlines based in Hong Kong had been relocated to or grounded at airports in Japan, China, Cambodia, Europe, Australia and other locations, Flightradar24 tracking data showed.
The government previously said the rise in water levels could be similar to those recorded during Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 – estimated to have caused the city direct economic losses worth 4.6bn Hong Kong dollars ($592m).
Taiwan premier Cho Jung-tai called on Wednesday for an inquiry into what went wrong with evacuation orders in an eastern county where flooding from a breached mountain lake during a strong typhoon killed 14, as fresh warnings spooked residents. Cho said the immediate priority was to find the 129 still missing, but questions remained.
In Hong Kong, where huge waves crashed over areas of the Asian financial hub’s eastern and southern shoreline, some roads and residential properties were submerged.
At the Fullerton Hotel on the island’s south, videos on social media showed seawater surging through glass doors. No injury has been reported, the hotel told Reuters.
Hong Kong will lower its typhoon signal to 3 from 8 after 12.20pm GMT on Wednesday, the city’s weather forecast agency said.
