Typhoon Ragasa kills 14 in Taiwan Andrea HamblinSeptember 24, 2025 at 4:13 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 T...
- - Typhoon Ragasa kills 14 in Taiwan
Andrea HamblinSeptember 24, 2025 at 4:13 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 two 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 as the search for survivors continued on Wednesday, with floods and "hurricane level" winds hitting parts of southern China and the region's financial centre, Hong Kong.
Wind gusts of 192km/hr were recorded in Ngong Ping in Lantau, largest of Hong Kong's islands, according to the government's weather service, which noted "phenomenal" waves were expected even as Ragasa moved away towards mainland China.
Residents in Guangfu township take shelter after a landslide-formed barrier lake burst, flooding homes - AFP
The typhoon – named after the Filipino word for a rapid, sudden motion – 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."
By 9am local time (2am BST), sea levels around Hong Kong had risen an average of 3metres 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.
Fire officials said all the dead and missing were in Guangfu.
Wang Tse-an said his entire village of Dama, home to about 1,000 people in the township, told Reuters the scenes were "chaotic" and supplies could not be delivered because the water had cut off towns.
"There are mud and rocks everywhere," he said. "Some flooding has subsided but some remains."
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2309 Typhoon Ragasa
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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 overflowed to release about 60 million tonnes of water, the government said.
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