HUALIEN, Taiwan / GUANGDONG, China — Super Typhoon Ragasa, the most powerful storm of 2025, has battered Taiwan with torrential rain and deadly floods and is now barreling toward the southern coast of China, prompting mass evacuations and citywide shutdowns.
At least two people were killed in Taiwan’s Hualien County on Tuesday when a mountain barrier lake, formed by earlier landslides, collapsed under days of relentless rainfall. The burst sent torrents of water into the township of Guangfu, sweeping away a bridge, submerging cars, and uprooting trees.
“In some places, water temporarily rose as high as the second floor of a house,” said Lee Lung-sheng, deputy chief of the Hualien County Fire Department. More than 260 residents were forced to higher ground, though officials said they were no longer in immediate danger. Video footage showed fast-moving waters tearing through streets and fields.
Taiwan inundated, flights canceled
Taiwan’s east coast has borne the brunt of Ragasa’s outer bands since Monday, recording nearly 24 inches of rain within 48 hours. Authorities reported six injuries, widespread blackouts, suspended ferry services, and the cancellation of more than 100 international flights. Schools and government offices were closed across much of the island.
Southern China and Hong Kong on high alert
Across the Taiwan Strait, Chinese authorities have evacuated more than 370,000 people in Guangdong Province, shuttering schools, halting public transport, and closing businesses. The state weather service warned of storm surges up to five meters and “catastrophic impacts.”
In Hong Kong, officials raised the city’s storm warning to Signal 10, the highest level. Panic buying stripped supermarket shelves of essentials, while Hong Kong International Airport announced “significant disruption,” with more than 500 Cathay Pacific flights canceled. Residents taped their windows and built sandbag barriers as the city prepared for impact.
The “King of Storms”
Ragasa, equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, had clocked gusts of up to 177 miles per hour earlier this week. China’s meteorological agency dubbed it the “King of Storms.” Forecasters warned that the typhoon’s right flank—the so-called “dirty side”—is on course to strike Hong Kong and Guangdong, amplifying wind speeds and pushing destructive storm surges inland.
Vietnam is also getting ready
The storm is expected to move toward northern Vietnam later this week, threatening millions more. Ragasa has already killed at least one person in the Philippines, where thousands were evacuated and schools in Manila closed ahead of landfall.
Scientists caution that while it is too early to attribute Ragasa directly to climate change, warming oceans are fueling stronger tropical cyclones. A hotter planet, U.N. researchers warn, is likely to mean more powerful winds, heavier rainfall, and greater coastal flooding—even if the total number of storms decreases.
For residents across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and southern China, those warnings have arrived in devastating form: Ragasa may rival or exceed the destruction wrought by Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 and Typhoon Hato in 2017, both of which left widespread damage in the region. (zai)
Map: Central Weather Administration