Typhoon Ragasa batters Hong Kong and southern China after causing deaths in Taiwan and Philippines
Hong Kong and parts of southern China weere on high alert as Super Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, approached on Wednesday with powerful winds and rains, forcing Chinese authorities to shut down schools and businesses in at least 10 cities.
Nearly 1.9 million people were relocated across Guangdong province, the southern Chinese economic powerhouse. The national weather agency forecast the super typhoon would make landfall between the cities of Yangjiang and Zhanjiang in the evening. Schools, factories and transit services were suspended in about a dozen cities.
Elsewhere, the bursting of a barrier lake in Taiwan killed at least 14 people and left 124 people missing, officials announced, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rains and brought widespread damage to parts of east Asia.
The outer rim of Super Typhoon Ragasa has been bearing down on Taiwan since Monday as its path moves down towards the southern Chinese coast.
Ragasa had already toppled trees, torn the roofs off buildings and killed at least two people while ripping through the northern Philippines, where thousands sought shelter in schools and evacuation centres.
At least 10 deaths were reported in the Philippines, including seven fishers who drowned after their boat was battered by huge waves and fierce wind and flipped over on Monday off Santa Ana town in northern Cagayan province. Five other fishers remained missing, provincial officials said.
Nearly 700,000 people were affected by the onslaught in the main northern Philippine region of Luzon, including 25,000 people who fled to government emergency shelters.
In Hong Kong and Macau, a nearby casino hub, canceled schools and flights, with many shops closed. Hundreds of people sought refuge in temporary centers in each city. Streets in Macau turned into streams with various debris floating on the water.
Here are some other key developments:
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All landings and departures at Hong Kong, the world’s busiest cargo airport and the ninth busiest for international passenger traffic, were cancelled for 36 hours starting on Tuesday evening. About 80% of the aircraft belonging to the four main airlines based in Hong Kong has been relocated to or grounded at airports in Japan, China, Cambodia, Europe, Australia and other locations, Flightradar24 tracking data showed.
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Hong Kong’s observatory said Super Typhoon Ragasa, with maximum sustained winds near the centre of about 195kph (120mph), skirted about 100 kilometers (62 miles) to the south of the financial hub. It was forecast to continuing moving west or west-northwest at about 22 kph (about 14 mph).
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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).
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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.
Key events
Here is a video report of the deadly flood crashing through Taiwan’s Hualien county as a barrier lake burst its banks after Super Typhoon Ragasa:
Number killed in Taiwan increases to 15, say fire department
Taiwan’s fire department on Wednesday adjusted down to 17 the number of people missing from a flood caused by Super Typhoon Ragasa, from 152 given previously, and said one other person had been confirmed dead, bringing the death toll up to 15.
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.
Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical typhoon this year, brought hurricane-force winds of up to 220km/h (137mph) and gusts of up to 295km/h.
Streets were mostly empty as wind picked up on Wednesday morning in Yangjiang, a city west of Hong Kong near where Super Typhoon Ragasa is expected to make landfall.
A local shopkeeper told Agence France-Presse (AFP) she was not sure if she would be able to open her convenience store. “It will depend on the weather conditions,” she said.
The Yangjiang train station – normally bustling with activity, locals said – stood empty, with rail travel suspended on Wednesday across the province of Guangdong.
Multiple districts in Hong Kong had instances of flooding, according to images circulated on social media and verified by AFP.
At the Fullerton Ocean Park Hotel, next to a theme park, a man was seen losing his balance after storm surge shattered the glass front doors and swept into its lobby, one of the videos showed.
“We are doing all we can to mitigate the impact brought about by the super typhoon,” a spokesperson for the hotel said.
Flood waters rushed into the seaside Heng Fa Chuen residential estate and covered its interior courtyards, another video clip showed.
Strong winds ripped off the top of a pedestrian footbridge, while many of the city’s tall buildings swayed and rattled in the harsh winds.
An off-duty firefighter surnamed Tse said he was “a bit worried” about the safety of nearby bamboo scaffoldings as he walked home after an 11-hour shift of “non-stop” work.
“This one was forecast to be quite bad so we were expecting a bit of chaos … [but everywhere seems to be functioning quite efficiently still,” said Benjamin Phizacklea, a 27-year-old chef.
The rail operator MTR said train services on open sections were suspended, with limited service available on the underground sections.
Authorities said more than 760 people sought refuge at the 50 temporary shelters across Hong Kong.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) has spoken to residents who witnessed a decades-old lake barrier bursting in Taiwan.
“It was like a volcano erupting …. The muddy flood waters came roaring straight into the first floor of my house,” Hsu Cheng-hsiung, 55, a neighbourhood leader of Kuang Fu township, told AFP.
According to the National Fire Agency, at least 152 people are missing in Hualien and elsewhere in Taiwan.
“It was a disaster movie,” a local resident Yen Shau, 31, told AFP. He said an hour before the lake burst, many people were still at the local supermarket and grocery store.
“Within minutes, the water had risen to halfway up the first floor,” he said. Shau told AFP that he could not sleep on Tuesday night for fear of another deluge from the lake, and on Wednesday was shovelling mud from his home. “The mud was just too deep, too deep to dig out,” he added.
Footage released by the fire agency showed flooded streets, half-submerged cars and uprooted trees.
Across Taiwan, more than 7,600 people were evacuated due to Typhoon Ragasa.
Hong Kong’s airlines evacuate planes as they wait out Typhoon Ragasa
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.
All landings and departures at Hong Kong, the world’s busiest cargo airport and the ninth busiest for international passenger traffic, were cancelled for 36 hours starting on Tuesday evening, reports Reuters.
Hong Kong’s largest airline, Cathay Pacific Airways, said on Monday that Super Typhoon Ragasa was going to have “a significant impact” on its operations and it would cancel more than 500 long-haul and regional flights.
“We are positioning some of our aircraft away from Hong Kong and expect a staggered and gradual resumption to our schedule throughout Thursday into Friday,” said the airline, which has a fleet of 179 passenger and freighter planes.
Hong Kong issued typhoon signal 10, its highest warning, early on Wednesday, which urges businesses and transport services to shut down.
It is standard industry practice for airlines to move aircraft abroad during major weather events or as conflict risk rises to avoid potential damage, often to comply with insurance obligations, reports Reuters.
Airlines can also preemptively send aircraft away from their main base so they are ready to operate return flights when a storm subsides. In high winds, airlines can store aircraft in hangars, or add extra fuel to weigh them down. Smaller aircraft can be tied down.
At least 14 Cathay Pacific jets flew from Hong Kong to Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Techo airport on Tuesday to wait out the storm, according to tracking data and Techo airport.
Hong Kong-based Greater Bay Airlines, a small carrier with seven aircraft, said it had parked all its planes away from Hong Kong as a safety precaution. Its Boeing 737s flew to airports in Japan and China on Tuesday, tracking data shows.
Hong Kong Airlines similarly appeared to have kept all but one of its 28 aircraft out of Hong Kong.
Cathay and its low-cost subsidiary HK Express kept more of their planes in Hong Kong, tracking data showed. Cathay and HK Express did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment about how they were storing their planes.
Taiwanese premier calls for lake flooding inquiry after 14 die
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, reports Reuters.
Sub-tropical Taiwan, frequently hit by typhoons, normally has a well-oiled disaster mechanism that averts mass casualties by moving people out of potential danger zones quickly. But many residents in Guangfu, an inundated town in the beauty spot of Hualien thronged by tourists, said there was insufficient warning when the lake overflowed during Tuesday’s torrential rains brought by Super Typhoon Ragasa.
Cho said the immediate priority was to find the 129 still missing, but questions remained. He told reporters in Guangfu:
For the 14 who have tragically passed away, we must investigate why evacuation orders were not carried out in the designated areas.
This is not about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth.
The barrier lake, formed by landslides triggered by earlier heavy rain in the island’s sparsely populated east, burst its banks to send a wall of water into Guangfu.
Resources were insufficient to help relocate those with disabilities, said Lamen Panay, a Hualien councillor, who added that government evacuation requests before the flood had not been mandatory.
Referring to guidance for people to head to higher floors, she said, “What we were facing wasn’t something ‘vertical evacuation’ could resolve.”
Reuters repots that as heavy rain continued on and off in Hualien, police cars sounded sirens a new flood warning in Guangfu on Wednesday, sending people scrambling for safer areas as residents and rescuers shouted, “The flood waters are coming, run fast.”
Taiwan has been lashed since Monday by the outer rim of Super Typhoon Ragasa, which is now hitting China’s southern coast and Hong Kong.
Typhoon Ragasa batters Hong Kong and southern China after causing deaths in Taiwan and Philippines
Hong Kong and parts of southern China weere on high alert as Super Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, approached on Wednesday with powerful winds and rains, forcing Chinese authorities to shut down schools and businesses in at least 10 cities.
Nearly 1.9 million people were relocated across Guangdong province, the southern Chinese economic powerhouse. The national weather agency forecast the super typhoon would make landfall between the cities of Yangjiang and Zhanjiang in the evening. Schools, factories and transit services were suspended in about a dozen cities.
Elsewhere, the bursting of a barrier lake in Taiwan killed at least 14 people and left 124 people missing, officials announced, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rains and brought widespread damage to parts of east Asia.
The outer rim of Super Typhoon Ragasa has been bearing down on Taiwan since Monday as its path moves down towards the southern Chinese coast.
Ragasa had already toppled trees, torn the roofs off buildings and killed at least two people while ripping through the northern Philippines, where thousands sought shelter in schools and evacuation centres.
At least 10 deaths were reported in the Philippines, including seven fishers who drowned after their boat was battered by huge waves and fierce wind and flipped over on Monday off Santa Ana town in northern Cagayan province. Five other fishers remained missing, provincial officials said.
Nearly 700,000 people were affected by the onslaught in the main northern Philippine region of Luzon, including 25,000 people who fled to government emergency shelters.
In Hong Kong and Macau, a nearby casino hub, canceled schools and flights, with many shops closed. Hundreds of people sought refuge in temporary centers in each city. Streets in Macau turned into streams with various debris floating on the water.
Here are some other key developments:
-
All landings and departures at Hong Kong, the world’s busiest cargo airport and the ninth busiest for international passenger traffic, were cancelled for 36 hours starting on Tuesday evening. About 80% of the aircraft belonging to the four main airlines based in Hong Kong has been relocated to or grounded at airports in Japan, China, Cambodia, Europe, Australia and other locations, Flightradar24 tracking data showed.
-
Hong Kong’s observatory said Super Typhoon Ragasa, with maximum sustained winds near the centre of about 195kph (120mph), skirted about 100 kilometers (62 miles) to the south of the financial hub. It was forecast to continuing moving west or west-northwest at about 22 kph (about 14 mph).
-
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.
