Nearly two million people have been relocated from southern Chinese megacities as a powerful typhoon hurtles into one of the world’s most densely populated coasts, after unleashing deadly flooding in Taiwan – where more than 100 people are listed as missing.

Typhoon Ragasa, which a few days ago was the strongest storm on earth so far this year, brought finance hub Hong Kong and swathes of southern China to a standstill on Wednesday, after barreling through remote islands in the Philippines and mountainous regions of Taiwan.

Packing hurricane-force winds, it has left a trail of damage, triggering landslides and huge waves, and is now bearing down on China’s Guangdong province, where massive cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou are located.

In Taiwan, at least 14 people died and rescuers are scrambling to locate 129 others still listed as missing after a natural dam holding back a recently formed lake collapsed, unleashing 68 million tons of water and flooding the nearby Guangfu township.

Videos from the town, in the mountainous eastern Hualien County, show a torrent of water rushing through the streets, with cars swept away and residents sheltering on higher floors as the lower levels of their homes become inundated.

Before the typhoon hit, authorities said they had issued multiple warnings and evacuation advisories to residents who could be impacted if the lake overflowed.

But their October prediction didn’t take heavy rainfall into account – and any strong typhoons could have sped up that process, said Kuo-Lung Wang, a professor at Taiwan’s National Chi Nan University. A large bridge in Hualien was also washed away by the rush of water following the collapse of the natural dam.

Southern China battered

The Philippines, Taiwan and southern China experience multiple typhoons annually, but the human-caused climate crisis has made storms more unpredictable and extreme.

As the storm approached the international finance hub of Hong Kong early Wednesday, it brought lashing winds that felled trees and ripped scaffolding off buildings, reaching maximum gusts of 168 kilometers per hour (104.39 mph). One CNN reporter on the ground saw sea swells pounding the sidewalk near Hong Kong’s iconic harbor.

The winds have prompted Hong Kong and Macau – together home to more than 8 million people – to issue their highest hurricane warning signal, with schools, businesses and public transit largely closed, including the city’s airport, one of the Asia’s busiest. Storm surges could reach up to four meters in some areas on Wednesday, warned the Hong Kong Observatory.

Other cities along the southern coast of China were bracing for impact, too, with authorities triggering measures to protect those most at risk from storm surges and landslides.

The country’s southern Guangdong province evacuated 1.89 million people by Tuesday night ahead of the typhoon’s arrival, according to the provincial emergency management department.

Strong track record of preparing for typhoons

Though this region is highly populated, with tens of millions potentially impacted by the typhoon, it’s also well-prepared.

These cities are frequently in storm paths and have developed sophisticated infrastructure to combat weather-related dangers – including a vast $3.8 billion drainage network that has saved Hong Kong from floods that decades ago routinely cost lives and caused widespread destruction.Two men negotiate a landslide after Typhoon Ragasa in Uyugan, Batanes province, northern Philippines on September 23, 2025.

It has since weakened slightly – but another storm called Opong is now intensifying in the Philippines in the aftermath of Ragasa and the typhoon season still has many months left.