South China cleans up after powerful Typhoon Ragasa

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 collapsed, or in parts flown away entirely.

“The winds were so strong, you could see it completely ripped everything apart,” said restaurant worker Lin Xiaobing, 50.

“There´s no electricity (at home),” she said while helping clear up the mess inside the restaurant, where the floors were covered in water, mud and debris. “Today, some homes still have electricity and others don´t.”

The island is a popular holiday spot and many locals rely on the tourism industry to make a living.

“We can’t do business here during the National Day,” she said, referring to China´s annual holiday period centred on October 1 but that lasts until October 8.

“We were planning to do some business this National Day to make up for it,” she added. “But now we may not be able to.”

Taiwan fatalities

Ragasa’s passage in Taiwan killed at least 14 and injured dozens more when a decades-old barrier lake burst in eastern Hualien county, according to regional officials who late Wednesday revised the death toll down from 17 after eliminating duplicate cases.

Authorities initially said 152 people were unaccounted for, but later made contact with more than 100 of them and were still trying to confirm the actual number of missing.

The storm made landfall in mainland China near Hailing Island on Wednesday evening.

By that point, authorities across China had already ordered businesses and schools to shut down in at least 10 cities across the nation´s south, affecting tens of millions of people.

Nearly 2.2 million people in Guangdong were relocated by Wednesday afternoon, but local officials later said several cities in the province started lifting restrictions on schools and businesses.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Ragasa made its second landfall in Beihai, Guangxi, on Thursday morning as a tropical storm.

Chinese authorities earmarked the equivalent of about $49.2 million to support rescue and relief work in regions hit by Typhoon Ragasa, Xinhua news agency said.

Hong Kong reopens

Hong Kong resumed flights out of its international airport on Thursday after a 36-hour suspension, reopening businesses, transportation services and some schools after the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year lashed the financial hub.

Ragasa brought the densely populated city to a standstill from Tuesday afternoon, after sweeping through the northern Philippines and Taiwan where it killed 14, before making landfall on the southern Chinese city of Yangjiang on Wednesday.

More than 100 people were injured in Hong Kong, where authorities imposed the highest typhoon signal 10 for most of Wednesday.

On Thursday, the observatory maintained its second-lowest typhoon signal 3, keeping kindergartens and some schools shut as Ragasa moved away from the city and weakened into a tropical storm.

Huge waves crashed over areas of Hong Kong’s eastern and southern shoreline on Wednesday, with widespread flooding submerging some roads and residential properties.

Seawater surged through the Fullerton hotel on the island’s south, shattering glass doors and inundating the lobby. No injuries were reported and the hotel said services were operating as normal.