Typhoon Ragasa kills 14 in Taiwan Andrea HamblinSeptember 24, 2025 at 12:59 AM 0 Water inundated Guangfu after a lake's banks burst AFP Fourteen people are dead and 124 missing after a "super typhoon" barrelling across Asia burst a lake's banks, unleashing a torrent that gushed through a village in ...
- - Typhoon Ragasa kills 14 in Taiwan
Andrea HamblinSeptember 24, 2025 at 12:59 AM
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Water inundated Guangfu after a lake's banks burst - AFP
Fourteen people are dead and 124 missing after a "super typhoon" barrelling across Asia burst a lake's banks, unleashing a torrent that gushed through a village in Taiwan.
Super Typhoon Ragasa had already killed three people in the Philippines before lashing Taiwan's east, where more than 600mm of rain swamped waterways and engulfed Guangfu on Tuesday.
The typhoon moved north-west towards southern China as the search for survivors continued on Wednesday, with "phenomenal" swells and "hurricane level" winds reported in Hong Kong.
Playgrounds were submerged in water and people dashed for cover as trees and street signs fell onto roads.
Waves crash into the Heng Fa Chuen residential district - TOMMY WANG
Schools in Hong Kong remained shut on Wednesday amid damaging floods - LEUNG MAN HEI
At waterfront resort Fullerton Ocean Park Hotel, waves smashed against windows, cracking the glass before a man was swept across the lobby floor.
Authorities said 56 people in Hong Kong had been hospitalised with injuries by midday Wednesday (5am BST), the South China Morning Post reported.
Gusts of 192km/hr blew across Ngong Ping in Lantau, the largest of Hong Kong's islands, according to the government's weather service, which noted powerful winds and flooding was expected to continue even as Ragasa moved away towards mainland China.
Soldiers found innovative ways to deliver supplies to people trapped in apartments in during floods in eastern Taiwan - Ann Wang
Firemen worked to remove an uprooted tree in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning - TOMMY WANG
The typhoon – named after the Filipino word to describe a violent surge – is expected to make landfall in Guangdong, in China's south, where more than 370,000 people were evacuated by Wednesday morning.
"Ragasa has started to depart from Hong Kong, but its associated hurricane force winds are still affecting the southwestern part of the territory occasionally," the Hong Kong Observatory said in its Wednesday morning update as it issued its highest typhoon warning.
"Members of the public should be on high alert and beware of destructive winds.
"Seas will be phenomenal with swells."
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2309 Typhoon Ragasa
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By 9am local time (2am BST), sea levels around Hong Kong had risen an average of 3m and were "still rising", expected to peak by noon.
Authorities told residents in the worst-hit areas to remain in shelters, while schools stayed closed.
Emirates, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa warned of cancellations and delays on Tuesday night, with about 600 flights grounded including services from London.
Search for survivors
In Hualien, the worst-impacted county in Taiwan, hundreds of people remained stranded after the overflowing lake submerged bridges and roads.
Parts of the region, which is home to about 320,000 people, were still being rebuilt after being devastated in April 2024 by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake, the largest to hit Taiwan in 25 years.
At least 19 people died and more than 1,100 were injured by that quake and its 1,400 aftershocks.
Fire officials said all the dead and missing after the typhoon this week were in the rural township of Guangfu which is made up of 14 small village.
Part of the bridge over Mataian Creek in Hualien was damaged - AFP
Army soldiers in tanks delivered supplies to typhoon-hit residents in Hualien - Ann Wang
Wang Tse-an reported "chaotic" scenes in his village of Dama, home to about 1,000 people, as supplies could not be delivered while the water had cut off towns.
"There are mud and rocks everywhere," Mr Wang, the village chief, told Reuters. "Some flooding has subsided but some remains."
More than 7,000 people were evacuated across Taiwan when Ragasa hit.
About 5,200 people, more than half of Guangfu's population, sought shelter on the higher floors of their own homes while most of the rest left to stay with their families, government data showed.
The government estimated the barrier lake contained 91 million tonnes of water, enough to fill about 36,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools and the equivalent of a major reservoir in southern Taiwan.
The lake – which had been formed by the movement of rock and soil during past landslides in the region – overflowed to release about 60 million tonnes of water, the government said.
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