A massive typhoon that’s already brought fatal flooding to Taiwan, where 14 are dead and 124 are missing, is churning into one of the world’s most densely populated coasts, bringing hurricane-force winds and heavy rain to southern Chinese cities like Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Typhoon Ragasa, which a few days ago was the strongest storm on earth so far this year, has barreled through remote islands in the Philippines and the mountainous regions of Taiwan. It left a trail of damage, triggering landslides and huge waves, and forced the evacuation of more than a million people in southern China.
A lake burst its banks in Taiwan’s eastern Hualien County on Tuesday unleashing a massive flood in the nearby township that killed at least a dozen people and left rescuers scrambling to locate more than a hundred who were still missing on Wednesday morning local time.
As the storm approached the international finance hub of Hong Kong early Wednesday, it brought lashing winds that felled trees and ripped scaffolding off buildings, reaching maximum gusts of 168 kilometers per hour (104.39 mph). One CNN reporter on the ground saw sea swells pounding the sidewalk near Hong Kong’s iconic harbor.
Video circulating on social media appeared to show storm surges shattering the glass doors of a seaside hotel, with huge waves gushing into the lobby and sweeping people off their feet. CNN cannot independently verify the video and has reached out to the hotel for comment.
The winds have prompted Hong Kong and Macau – together home to more than 8 million people – to issue their highest hurricane warning signal, with schools, businesses and public transit largely closed. Storm surges could reach up to four meters in some areas on Wednesday, warned the Hong Kong Observatory.
Other cities along the southern coast of China are bracing for impact, too. The country’s southern Guangdong province evacuated more than a million people by Tuesday evening ahead of the typhoon’s arrival, with more than 10,000 vessels relocated to safer waters to avoid the storm. More than 38,000 firefighters are on standby, according to state-run outlet Xinhua.
Though this region is highly populated, with tens of millions potentially impacted by the typhoon, it’s also well-prepared. These cities are frequently in storm paths and have developed sophisticated infrastructure to combat weather-related dangers – including a vast $3.8 billion drainage network that has saved Hong Kong from floods that decades ago routinely cost lives and caused widespread destruction.
This year has been particularly stormy. Hong Kong typically experiences about six typhoons annually, but Ragasa marks the ninth typhoon so far this year, according to the City University of Hong Kong.
When the storm, also known as Typhoon Nando, first made landfall in the northern Philippines, it had been the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane – so huge it could be easily seen from space, with images showing the eye of the storm amid a gigantic cloud of white.
It has since weakened slightly – but another storm called Opong is now intensifying in the Philippines in the aftermath of Ragasa.
So far four deaths have been reported in the Philippines, which are still being verified, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.
