A powerful typhoon that has already unleashed deadly floods in Taiwan is now bearing down on some of the world’s most densely populated cities in southern China, including Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Typhoon Ragasa — at one point the strongest storm on Earth this year — carved a path of destruction through remote Philippine islands and Taiwan’s mountainous regions before churning across the Taiwan Strait. The storm has killed at least 14 people in Taiwan, left 124 missing, and forced more than a million residents of southern China to evacuate.
In Taiwan’s eastern Hualien County, a lake burst its banks on Tuesday, sending a torrent of water through a nearby township that killed at least a dozen people and left rescuers scrambling to locate more than 100 still unaccounted for.
By early Wednesday, Ragasa was lashing Hong Kong with hurricane-force winds that toppled trees and tore scaffolding from buildings. The Hong Kong Observatory reported gusts up to 168 kilometers per hour (104 mph) as huge swells pounded the city’s iconic harbor. Video on social media appeared to show storm surges smashing the glass doors of a seaside hotel and flooding the lobby; CNN said it could not verify the footage.
Authorities in Hong Kong and neighboring Macau — together home to more than eight million people — issued their highest hurricane warning, shutting schools, businesses and much of the public transport network. The Observatory warned storm surges could reach up to four meters (13 feet) in some areas.
Along China’s southern coast, cities braced for impact. Guangdong province evacuated more than a million people by Tuesday evening and moved over 10,000 vessels to safer waters. More than 38,000 firefighters were put on standby, according to state media.
Although the region faces regular typhoons and has invested heavily in flood defenses — including Hong Kong’s $3.8 billion drainage system — Ragasa is still testing the limits of that infrastructure. The city typically experiences about six typhoons a year; Ragasa is the ninth in 2025, according to the City University of Hong Kong.
When the storm — also known as Typhoon Nando — first made landfall in the northern Philippines, it packed Category-5-level winds visible from space. Four deaths have been reported there so far, with officials still verifying the toll. Meanwhile, another tropical system named Opong is strengthening in the Philippines in Ragasa’s wake.
