Hurricane Ragasa batters Hong Kong and southern China after inflicting deaths in Taiwan and Philippines
Hong Kong and elements of southern China weere on excessive alert as Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa, the world’s strongest tropical cyclone this 12 months, approached on Wednesday with highly effective winds and rains, forcing Chinese language authorities to close down colleges and companies in a minimum of 10 cities.
Almost 1.9 million folks have been relocated throughout Guangdong province, the southern Chinese language financial powerhouse. The nationwide climate company forecast the tremendous storm would make landfall between the cities of Yangjiang and Zhanjiang within the night. Faculties, factories and transit companies have been suspended in a couple of dozen cities.
Elsewhere, the bursting of a barrier lake in Taiwan killed a minimum of 14 folks and left 124 folks lacking, officers introduced, after Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rains and introduced widespread harm to elements of east Asia.
The outer rim of Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa has been bearing down on Taiwan since Monday as its path strikes down in the direction of the southern Chinese language coast.
Ragasa had already toppled bushes, torn the roofs off buildings and killed a minimum of two folks whereas ripping via the northern Philippines, the place hundreds sought shelter in colleges and evacuation centres.
At the very least 10 deaths have been reported within the Philippines, together with seven fishers who drowned after their boat was battered by large waves and fierce wind and flipped over on Monday off Santa Ana city in northern Cagayan province. 5 different fishers remained lacking, provincial officers stated.
Almost 700,000 folks have been affected by the onslaught in the principle northern Philippine area of Luzon, together with 25,000 individuals who fled to authorities emergency shelters.
In Hong Kong and Macau, a close-by on line casino hub, canceled colleges and flights, with many retailers closed. Tons of of individuals sought refuge in short-term facilities in every metropolis. Streets in Macau become streams with varied particles floating on the water.
Listed below are another key developments:
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All landings and departures at Hong Kong, the world’s busiest cargo airport and the ninth busiest for worldwide passenger visitors, have been cancelled for 36 hours beginning on Tuesday night. About 80% of the plane belonging to the 4 primary airways based mostly in Hong Kong has been relocated to or grounded at airports in Japan, China, Cambodia, Europe, Australia and different places, Flightradar24 monitoring information confirmed.
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Hong Kong’s observatory stated Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa, with most sustained winds close to the centre of about 195kph (120mph), skirted about 100 kilometers (62 miles) to the south of the monetary hub. It was forecast to persevering with shifting west or west-northwest at about 22 kph (about 14 mph).
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The federal government beforehand stated the rise in water ranges might be much like these recorded throughout Hurricane Mangkhut in 2018 – estimated to have induced town direct financial losses value 4.6bn Hong Kong {dollars} ($592m).
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Taiwan premier Cho Jung-tai referred to as on Wednesday for an inquiry into what went mistaken with evacuation orders in an jap county the place flooding from a breached mountain lake throughout a robust storm killed 14, as contemporary warnings spooked residents. Cho stated the fast precedence was to seek out the 129 nonetheless lacking, however questions remained.
Key occasions
Here’s a video report of the lethal flood crashing via Taiwan’s Hualien county as a barrier lake burst its banks after Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa:
Quantity killed in Taiwan will increase to fifteen, say fireplace division
Taiwan’s fireplace division on Wednesday adjusted right down to 17 the variety of folks lacking from a flood attributable to Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa, from 152 given beforehand, and stated one different particular person had been confirmed useless, bringing the dying toll as much as 15.
Drone photographs confirmed flooding in a Philippine city north of the capital, Manila, after heavy rain from Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa hit the realm.
The nation’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, ordered the nation’s catastrophe response company to go on full alert and mobilised all authorities companies in response to Ragasa, which swept via the northern Philippines after making landfall on Monday.
Ragasa, the world’s strongest tropical storm this 12 months, introduced hurricane-force winds of as much as 220km/h (137mph) and gusts of as much as 295km/h.
Streets have been principally empty as wind picked up on Wednesday morning in Yangjiang, a metropolis west of Hong Kong close to the place Tremendous Hurricane Ragasa is predicted to make landfall.
A neighborhood shopkeeper advised Agence France-Presse (AFP) she was unsure if she would have the ability to open her comfort retailer. “It’ll depend upon the climate circumstances,” she stated.
The Yangjiang practice station – usually bustling with exercise, locals stated – stood empty, with rail journey suspended on Wednesday throughout the province of Guangdong.
A number of districts in Hong Kong had cases of flooding, in line with pictures circulated on social media and verified by AFP.
On the Fullerton Ocean Park Lodge, subsequent to a theme park, a person was seen shedding his steadiness after storm surge shattered the glass entrance doorways and swept into its foyer, one of many movies confirmed.
“We’re doing all we are able to to mitigate the impression caused by the tremendous storm,” a spokesperson for the resort stated.
Flood waters rushed into the seaside Heng Fa Chuen residential property and lined its inside courtyards, one other video clip confirmed.
Robust winds ripped off the highest of a pedestrian footbridge, whereas lots of the metropolis’s tall buildings swayed and rattled within the harsh winds.
An off-duty firefighter surnamed Tse stated he was “a bit nervous” concerning the security of close by bamboo scaffoldings as he walked house after an 11-hour shift of “continuous” work.
“This one was forecast to be fairly unhealthy so we have been anticipating a little 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.
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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.
