Super Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s strongest tropical cyclone this yr, lashed Hong Kong with hurricane-force winds and torrential rain on Wednesday (September 24, 2025) as town shut down and greater than 700 flights have been cancelled.
The hurricane sparked panic shopping for this week, with individuals piling into supermarkets, leaving little on the cabinets and in some circumstances queuing for hours to buy items amid fears that retailers might be closed for 2 days.
As the hurricane approached, residents throughout town taped their home windows within the hope of minisiming any hazard from shattered glass.
Packing hurricane-force winds of as much as 200 kph (124 mph), Ragasa might be closest to Hong Kong early Wednesday morning, skirting round 100 km to the south of the territory.
Hong Kong issued the hurricane sign 10, its highest, late on Tuesday, which urges most companies and transport companies to close down.
“Seas will be phenomenal with swells. There will be overtopping waves over the shoreline, which will be particularly significant along the eastern and southern coasts,” the observatory mentioned.
Authorities have warned of rising sea ranges, saying they might be much like these seen throughout Typhoon Hato in 2017 and Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, each of which brought about billions of {dollars} in injury.
The observatory mentioned water ranges have began to rise on account of a major storm surge and will attain a most of round 4 metres (13 ft) round midday (0400 GMT).
The monetary hub has already opened 49 momentary shelters in varied districts and 727 individuals have sought refuge on the shelters.
Hong Kong’s Stock Exchange will stay open. It modified its coverage late final yr to proceed buying and selling regardless of the climate. Ragasa will keep tremendous hurricane depth because it edges nearer to the coast of Guangdong, mainland China and Taiwan, after sweeping by means of the northern Philippines on Monday. It is predicted to make landfall alongside Guangdong’s coast from noon to late Wednesday.
Guangdong authorities evacuated over 770,000 individuals, state broadcaster CCTV mentioned. In the playing hub of Macau subsequent to Hong Kong, authorities issued the No. 10 warning sign at 5.30 a.m.
