Super Typhoon Ragasa pummeled Hong Kong on Wednesday morning with a ferocity not witnessed in the city for years. Ragasa brought hurricane-force winds, torrential rain and a storm surge that left a trail of destruction in densely populated Hong Kong.

A river of sea water crashed through the lobby of a luxury hotel, sending people and glass flying.

In neighboring Taiwan, Ragasa had already brought rains heavy enough to breach a dam, unleashing a wall of water that killed 14 people downstream and washed away a bridge.

Hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated from low lying areas in southern China as what’s been dubbed by local media the “King of Storms” lashed the coastline.

A weather station in the town of Chuandao recorded a gust of about 150 mph on Wednesday afternoon, according to The Associated Press, setting a local record. At that strength the typhoon would likely be the equivalent of a strong Category 3 or a Category 4 hurricane.

My own family and I live close to the water in Hong Kong, and it was too close for comfort as a violent storm surge turned a normally calm estuary into a menacing threat.

We thought we’d passed the worst of the storm — high tide had come and gone — but then suddenly the huge surge of water rose toward us, with waves crashing into our front yard. In some areas the waves were higher than lamp posts.

The flooding trapped me and my children for a while, but we were lucky, managing to weather the storm and, thanks to piles of sandbags, keep our home dry.

Not everyone in the city of some 7.5 million people was as fortunate to walk away unscathed.

Super Typhoon Ragasa was heading toward southern China’s Guandong Province on Wednesday, where almost 2 million people had been relocated to higher ground.

The storm is forecast to lose some of its intensity as it continues on its path Wednesday, but already it has been one of the most powerful storms seen across the globe this year.