Get the latest update on Typhoon Ragasa, which killed 17 in Taiwan and is now making landfall in China, causing widespread concern and dama...
Get the latest update on Typhoon Ragasa, which killed 17 in Taiwan and is now making landfall in China, causing widespread concern and damage. In southern China, where nearly two million people were evacuated before the typhoon hit, Ragasa has now made impact.
It comes after Taiwanese authorities said at least 17 people were killed and more were missing after a lake burst on Tuesday, drowning the eastern part of the island badly.
Ragasa was downgraded from a super typhoon to a severe typhoon on Wednesday, but it is still very destructive. In Taishan county in the south-eastern Guangdong province of China, top winds of 241 km/h (150 mph) were reported.
Ragasa is the world's biggest storm this year. It is about the same strength as a Category 5 hurricane and has been raging over the South China Sea for days.
The hospital authority said that 90 people were hurt in Hong Kong as the storm went along the coast before it hit land.
Chinese state media say the storm hit land on the coast of Hailing Island in Yanjiang City, Guangdong, at about 17:00 local time (9:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
It went across the country with winds that kept going at 144 km/h or higher. As the storm moves west over land, the winds are forecast to slowly weaken. However, for a few more days, the rain will be heavy and move slowly across the region.
Zhuhai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, all in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, were getting ready for seawater to start coming in around noon local time.
Police in Zhuhai told people to stay home as they walked the streets with horns and megaphones.
In the hilly parts of Guangdong province, red alerts for landslides were also sent out. Authorities in Taiwan are still dealing with the damage that Ragasa caused, which they say was "far worse than anticipated" and not on the Chinese mainland.
Premier Cho Jung-Tai wants to know how people were evacuated after at least 17 people died when a barrier lake made by a landslide in July burst its banks in Hualien county, flooding the town of Guangfu badly. The fire department said that others are still missing.
"We must investigate why evacuation orders were not carried out in the areas we had asked for, which led to such a tragedy," Cho said. "This is not about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth."
Around 1,000 people live in the township of Dama in Taiwan. Earlier on Wednesday, the village chief said that the Matai'an Creek barrier lake had burst, flooding the whole village and leaving many people stuck.
Wang Tse-an told Reuters, "It's a mess right now." "There's mud and rocks all over." Some water has stopped, but some is still there. The breach was like a "tsunami from the mountains" according to some scientists, as it let out about 15.4 million tonnes of water, which is the same as 6,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The flooding washed away a number of important bridges, flooded cars, and flooded the first floors of houses. A lot of people were stuck on the upper floors and had to wait for help.
The city's floods have gone down, but thick mud and debris are still there, and search teams are still going door-to-door looking for the missing.
"I'm shocked still." I have no idea how this could have happened. There are many shops in this area, which is one of the busiest in Hualien. The BBC spoke to Awa, 42, who runs a book store with her husband in Guangfu Township. "We go to these places all the time, but yesterday everything was destroyed,"
They stayed the night at an escape center. There are many native groups living in Hualien. The couple is part of the Amis society.
In Hualien, the government has set up a front-line disaster response center, and the Ministry of National Defense has sent troops to help with rescue operations. Typhoon Ragasa has also made things hard in the Philippines and Hong Kong.
Even though it didn't hit land in Hong Kong, the typhoon left behind strong winds and heavy rain that hurt 90 people, according to the hospital authority.
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong Observatory warned of the storm at level 10, which is the highest level it can go. It asked people to stay inside.
There were no flights, and some companies and schools were closed. The airport authority said that flights would start up again at midnight on Thursday.
Ragasa hit the Philippines' farthest northern islands earlier this week. It flooded towns, forced thousands of people to leave their homes, and killed at least eight. Ragasa is thought to be the strongest storm the world has seen this year. On Monday, it had winds of 260kph (162 mph).
Ragasa has been called the "King of Storms" by the China Meteorological Administration.
It is likely to do more damage than the other typhoons that hit Guangdong state in China earlier this year.