Typhoon Ragasa | Pakistan

Hundreds of thousands of people in southern China were clearing up Thursday after powerful Typhoon Ragasa crashed through Guangdong Province, ripping down trees, destroying fences and blasting signs off buildings. Ragasa churned into Guangdong, home to tens of millions of people, with winds up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) per hour, on Wednesday after sweeping past Hong Kong and killing at least 14 in Taiwan. AFP journalists at the impact point around the city of Yangjiang on Thursday saw fallen trees, while road signs and debris were strewn across the streets. A light rain and breeze still lingered as residents worked to clean up the damage; however, authorities have not reported any storm-related fatalities. On Hailing — an island administered by Yangjiang —relief workers attempted to clear a huge tree that had fallen across a wide road. Cars drove on muddy tracks to get around the wreckage as the team worked to saw off branches. A seafood restaurant had sustained heavy damage, its back roof completely colla...

Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, barreled towards tens of millions of people in southern China on Wednesday after killing 14 people in Taiwan, leaving scores missing and lashing Hong Kong with ferocious winds and heavy rains. Some 129 people are missing in Taiwan’s eastern Hualien county, after a barrier lake overflowed and sent a wall of water into a town, the Taiwan fire department said on Wednesday, with Ragasa’s outer rim having drenched the island since Monday. Many residents in the tourist town of Guangfu complained there was insufficient warning from Taiwan authorities, who are used to moving people out of potential danger zones swiftly on the island, which is frequently hit by typhoons. As rains inundated Taiwan, Hong Kong grappled with huge waves that crashed over areas of the Asian financial hub’s eastern and southern shoreline, breaking into white-water streams as they rushed along pavements and submerged some roads alongside residential properties. At the Fulle...