Macau residents were spotted wading through knee-deep seawater with nets and bags to catch fish swept inland by Super Typhoon Ragasa, videos circulating online showed.

The city raised its highest No 10 typhoon warning as hurricane-force winds and storm surges submerged low-lying districts. Some residents used bicycles and even incubators to carry their catch, with families seen bringing children to collect fish near the historic A-Ma Temple, The Standard reported.

Authorities had repeatedly urged people to remain indoors during the most dangerous phase of the storm. The Civil Protection Operations Centre said four people were injured and electricity was cut in some flooded zones as a precaution.

By the afternoon, the storm surge warning was lowered from red to blue, and the typhoon signal downgraded to No 8 as Ragasa moved away from the city.

More than 50,000 trees were destroyed in Yangjiang, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Streets were submerged and crews used excavators to clear debris. In Zhuhai, rescuers deployed inflatable boats to reach stranded residents, while more than 56,000 homes lost power across Guangdong by Wednesday night.

The storm has killed at least 14 people in Taiwan and 11 in the Philippines

Taiwan’s fire department revised down to 14 the death toll from the typhoon this week on its remote east coast, but said 33 people were still unaccounted for.

The deaths happened after Super Typhoon Ragasa’s outer bands brought heavy rain to Taiwan’s Hualien county, causing a barrier lake in the mountains to overflow and unleash a wall of water onto the small town of Guangfu.

Having said the previous day that 17 had died, the fire department adjusted that to 14, saying some casualties had been counted twice.

It put the new number of missing at 33, a figure that had hit 152 at one point, as the government searches for people reported out of contact.

Tropical Storm Ragasa weakened as it pushed west across southern China today, with Vietnam now bracing for heavy rain and floods after the year’s strongest cyclone battered Taiwan, the Philippines and Guangdong province.

Vietnam’s prime minister, Phạm Minh Chính, ordered ministries and local authorities to protect key infrastructure such as dams and hospitals, secure fishing vessels, and prepare evacuation and rescue operations.

Some flights were cancelled or rescheduled, and workers trimmed roadside trees in northern provinces to reduce wind hazards.

The storm had sustained winds of about 65kmph this morning, down from its peak as a super typhoon with 265kmph winds earlier in the week. Forecasters said Ragasa would continue to weaken but remain a rain threat across parts of Southeast Asia.

Hong Kong resumed flights out of its international airport on Thursday after a 36-hour suspension, reopening businesses, transportation services and some schools after the world’s most powerful typhoon this year lashed the financial hub.

Ragasa brought the densely populated city to a standstill from Tuesday afternoon, after sweeping through the northern Philippines and Taiwan where it killed 14, before making landfall on the southern Chinese city of Yangjiang on Wednesday.

More than 100 people were injured in Hong Kong, where authorities imposed the highest typhoon signal 10 for most of Wednesday. On Thursday, the observatory maintained its second-lowest typhoon signal 3, keeping kindergartens and some schools shut as Ragasa moved away from the city and weakened into a tropical storm.

Huge waves crashed over areas of Hong Kong’s eastern and southern shoreline on yesterday, with widespread flooding submerging some roads and residential properties.

Chinese authorities have earmarked 150 million yuan (about £16m) in disaster-relief funds to support rescue and recovery work in provinces hit by Typhoon Ragasa.

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management said the money will be directed to Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian, where it will be used for relocating residents, inspecting risks of secondary disasters, clearing hazards and carrying out emergency repairs.

Schools, factories and transport services were suspended in a dozen cities across southern China.

Some were preparing to reopen as conditions eased, but trains in neighbouring Guangxi will remain suspended on Thursday, officials said.

Typhoon Ragasa smashed into southern China on Wednesday, with a weather station in Guangdong recording wind gusts of 241kmph (150mph) – the strongest on record for the city of Jiangmen – as the storm left a trail of destruction across Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the Philippines.

More than 2 million people were relocated across Guangdong province, state media reported, before the typhoon made landfall on Hailing Island in Yangjiang city at about 5pm local time.

State broadcaster CCTV said Ragasa struck with maximum winds of 144kmph near its centre, lashing coastal areas with violent gusts and torrential rain that reduced visibility to just a few metres.

Chim Lee, a senior energy and climate change specialist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, says authorities in South East Asia and East Asia have “taken lessons from [typhoons] Hato and Mangkhut, which both caused billions of dollars in damage in 2017 and 2018”.

“The Pearl River Delta is one of the best-prepared regions for typhoons, so we’re not expecting major disruptions.

“One change this year is that the Hong Kong stock market has stayed open during typhoons – a sign of how resilient the infrastructure has become,” he said.