Super Typhoon Ragasa, a monstrous storm packing winds of up to 295 kilometers per hour, slammed into the northern Philippines on Monday, setting off a chain of preparations for a direct hit on Southern China. The storm’s immense force has prompted the Chinese megacity of Shenzhen to initiate one of the largest peacetime evacuations in recent history, planning to move 400,000 people from vulnerable coastal areas.
The typhoon made its first landfall on the Philippines’ Calayan Island, with ferocious winds rattling communities. “I woke up because of the strong wind. It was hitting the windows, and it sounded like a machine that was switched on,” recounted Tirso Tugagao, a resident of the coastal town of Aparri. While over 10,000 Filipinians have been evacuated, the nation braces for potential “severe flooding and landslides” in the northern Luzon region.
All eyes, however, are on the storm’s trajectory toward China’s densely populated Pearl River Delta. In anticipation of Ragasa’s arrival, multiple cities in Guangdong province, including Shenzhen, have canceled classes and work and will suspend public transportation. The storm’s impact is already crippling regional travel, with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific anticipating over 500 flight cancellations as the financial hub shuts down its airport from Tuesday evening.
The threat is felt across the Taiwan Strait as well, where authorities warned of “extremely torrential rain” and initiated evacuations in landslide-prone mountainous areas. “What worries us more is that the damage could be similar to what happened during Typhoon Koinu two years ago,” said fire department officer James Wu, recalling a storm that caused widespread destruction.
The arrival of Ragasa underscores the acute vulnerability of the Philippines, which bears the brunt of an average of 20 such storms annually. The timing is particularly poignant, as the typhoon’s flood threat emerges just a day after public protests in the Philippines over a corruption scandal involving poorly constructed or nonexistent flood control projects. Scientists point to Ragasa’s intensity as a stark reminder that human-driven climate change is fueling more powerful and destructive storms, putting millions in disaster-prone regions at ever-greater risk.
About The Author
