Typhoon Ragasa was brutal in a trail of destruction in Asia, killing at least 14 people in Taiwan and causing a lot of damage in the Philippines, up to the South of China. The most powerful storm to happen in the world in 2025 caused devastating flooding after the bursting of a barrier lake that led to the evacuation of close to 2.2 million citizens in Hualien County, Taiwan, and almost 2 million individuals were displaced in Guangdong Province, China.
Taiwan amends death report as rescue operations continue
According to Al Jazeera, Taiwan has reduced the number of people killed by the Typhoon Ragasa from three to 14 as the tropical storm travels through China and approaches Vietnam. The Hualien County Fire Department revised the death toll of the previous day as 17 on Thursday, and they added that some of the cases were counted twice, with the effect being reported to the distant east side of Taiwan.
These fatalities followed when the outer connection of the typhoon caused Hualien County to get heavy rainfall, leading to a barrier pool of North American mountains breaking open and another dam at a town named Guangfu. Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai stated that the fatalities, during which the majority of victims were on the first floors of structures, need to be examined, and the government should use the so-called golden rescue window to locate the missing people.
A mountain tsunami catastrophe occurs due to the collapse of barrier lakes
Regarding the words some geologists have termed this burst a timber tsunami, accounting for 15.4 million tonnes of water or 6,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water, which was emitted during the dam failure, as reported by the BBC. A dozen important bridges were washed away, vehicles were lost, and the ground floors of houses were underwater in the floods. Numerous residents had to be stuck on storeys above, waiting to be rescued.
Clean-up commences after landfall of storms in China
On Wednesday, ragasa brushed by Hong Kong, moving into mainland China into Guangdong province late, where it had winds up to 145km/h (90mph). Southern Chinese people started cleaning it by Thursday. Those reporters of the AFP news agency at a site of the impact at the city of Yangjiang on Thursday found collapsed trees, with road signs and rubble lying scattered all over the road.
Tens of millions of people in the south had been impacted by the closure of businesses and schools ordered by the authorities in at least 10 cities around the country when the storm hit Hailing. Almost 2.2 million residents of Guangdong had been moved, as of Wednesday afternoon; however, local officials later told reporters that a number of cities within the province began to relax school and business restrictions.
Hong overlays 90 skirting typhoon injuries
The typhoon flew over Hong Kong; however, the hospital authority reported that 90 individuals were injured when the storm flew along those shores, causing massive winds and flooding. On Wednesday, the Hong Kong Observatory issued the maximum level 10 warning of the storm, and urged its people to stay indoors. The planes were halted, the schools were closed, and certain enterprises were closed. There were hopes of flights being back in the air at midnight on Thursday. With its peak at 260kph (162 mph) on the 2 nd of Monday, it is said that Ragasa was the strongest storm the world ever witnessed this year.
The terrible path of Typhoon Ragasa that led to much destruction in Asia emphasizes the rising strength of tropical storms in the area, and climate experts indicate that future typhoons will be even stronger. With recovery efforts ongoing in various countries, the effects of the storm highlight how the high-population states on the coastal mainland were vulnerable to extreme weather conditions.