{"id":447377,"date":"2025-09-24T03:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T03:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/447377\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T03:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T03:17:09","slug":"super-typhoon-ragasa-at-least-14-killed-in-taiwan-as-hong-kong-and-southern-china-brace-for-impact-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/447377\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Typhoon Ragasa: at least 14 killed in Taiwan as Hong Kong and southern China brace for impact | Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bursting of a barrier lake in Taiwan<\/a> has killed at least 14 people and left 124 people missing, officials have announced, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rains and brought widespread damage to parts of east Asia.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The barrier lake, formed by landslides triggered by earlier heavy rain in Taiwan\u2019s east, burst its banks mid-afternoon on Tuesday, unleashing a wall of water into the Guangfu township.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of 7 am [Wednesday], 14 people are confirmed dead and 18 were reported injured,\u201d said Lee Kuan-ting, a Hualien county government press official.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty missing was the figure last night, released by the National Fire Agency, and our teams are still searching,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s fire department said on Wednesday that 124 people remained missing in Hualien county.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The remaining piers of the Mataian Bridge after it collapsed during Super Typhoon Ragasa in eastern Taiwan. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n

Hong Kong and parts of southern China were on high alert on Wednesday as Ragasa approached with powerful winds and rains, forcing Chinese authorities to shut down schools and businesses in at least 10 cities.<\/p>\n

In Hong Kong, classes were to be suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday, though the stock exchange adopted new rules this year to keep markets open during typhoons.<\/p>\n

There were no flights out of Hong Kong after 6pm Tuesday, according to the airport\u2019s website. Cathay Pacific earlier said that more than 500 of its flights were set to be cancelled.<\/p>\n

The super typhoon was generating maximum sustained winds of 195km\/h near its centre while moving west across the South China<\/a> Sea, according to Hong Kong\u2019s weather service.<\/p>\n

The Hong Kong Observatory issued its highest typhoon warning, T10, at 2.40am on Wednesday, saying it will \u201cremain in force for some time\u201d as Ragasa comes closest to the territory later in the morning.<\/p>\n

It also warned of significant swells and storm surge as the storm moves through, with some areas potentially seeing water levels four to five metres above normal.<\/p>\n

An AFP reporter saw waves nearly five metres high smash into the seaside promenade of Hong Kong\u2019s Heng Fa Chuen residential district around nightfall.<\/p>\n

Heavy waves in Hong Kong\u2019s Heng Fa Chuen residential district\u00a0as Super Typhoon Ragasa approaches. Photograph: Tommy Wang\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Terence Choi, a Hong Kong resident, said he had stocked two days\u2019 worth of food at home, adding that he was \u201cquite nervous\u201d about the prospect of the housing estate losing power and fresh water supply.<\/p>\n

Yang Lee-o, who has lived in the coastal neighbourhood of Lei Yue Mun for 40 years, said government workers had already spent a day placing sandbags.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s number-two official, Eric Chan, previously said Ragasa would pose a \u201cserious threat\u201d comparable to the super typhoons of 2017 and 2018, which cost hundreds of millions in property damage.<\/p>\n

Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world warms due to the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n

Ragasa \u2013 named after the Filipino word for rapid motion \u2013 is expected to make landfall in the central and western coastal areas of Guangdong within 24 hours, the province\u2019s emergency management bureau said on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Shenzhen in China\u2019s south-east earlier ordered the evacuation of 400,000 people.<\/p>\n

Emergency management authorities in the Chinese tech hub said that except for emergency rescue personnel and those ensuring people\u2019s livelihood, \u201cdo not go out casually\u201d.<\/p>\n

Other cities in the southern province of Guangdong that are implementing the measures include Chaozhou, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Foshan.<\/p>\n

With Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bursting of a barrier lake in Taiwan has killed at least 14 people and left 124 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-447377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115257110901032249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}