Howling winds and sheets of rain have replaced the noise of rush hour in Zhuhai, which is on China's southern coast. As typhoon Ragasa...
Howling winds and sheets of rain have replaced the noise of rush hour in Zhuhai, which is on China's southern coast.
As typhoon Ragasa got closer on Wednesday, branches from falling trees and what seemed like bits of metal from the edge of a structure flew along deserted roadways.
Police cars have been driving about with megaphones, telling people to stay inside, but it's hard to hear them over winds that are 100 mph (160 km/h). The thunderous clouds and soaking wet Zhuhai were enough of a warning. Most people listened, and the city of roughly three million people came to a standstill, except for a few cyclists who were desperate to get to work.
Ragasa has been moving over the South China Sea after hitting the Philippines and Taiwan. It is the greatest storm the globe has witnessed this year. Officials said that at least 15 people have died in eastern Taiwan when a mountain lake overflowed its banks.
As the storm passed by Hong Kong, strong winds and rain caused steep waves to crash into land, flooding coastal regions and hurting more than 60 people.
It hit land in China at 17:00 local time (09:00 GMT) this evening. By that time, around two million people had already left the densely crowded province of Guangdong, where Zhuhai is located. Officials have also put out a red notice for high tides and waves that hit the shore.
The rain hit the city's tall skyscrapers hard as the eye of the storm got closer to the mainland. The wind was already strong, but it slammed harder in waves and blasts, making it virtually impossible to stand up. Even from the inside, the windows in our new hotel creaked beneath the weight.
This hotel is also housing some of the people who have been moved out of low-lying areas in this province. Families are milling around with the few things they could get for the night, and their kids are dancing in the corridors, maybe just because they don't have to go to school today.
Zhuhai is a popular place for tourists to go. It has golf resorts and amusement parks. It sits on a delta where the Pearl River meets the South China Sea. It is used to typhoons and was ready for this one.
People who live in houses have been tape up their windows, while companies have been getting sandbags supplied to put at their doors to keep tidal surges from getting into their buildings.
People haven't panicked; they've just given up. We heard that neighborhood watch officials had gone door to door checking on people and stores to make sure they were following evacuation orders. We only discovered a few unhappy people who didn't want to close their restaurant too early and lose extra business hours.
The city has hundreds of places where people can go to get away. Police patrols had also begun early, with officers stationed at street corners and on the beach to keep citizens from getting too close to the waves. People from the area were soon sent out to chop down branches that were sticking out of trees.
China's leaders have had a lot of practice getting ready for disasters. They really pay attention to the warnings. They are afraid of being criticized, like they were in other natural disasters, for not doing enough to keep people safe.
The warnings come days before the hurricane hits now.
Before Ragasa even touched the Philippines, the meteorology bureau in Guangdong, a major manufacturing center in China, started urging citizens in the province to get ready for a "catastrophic disaster." Chinese state media called this a rare warning.
Officials are aware that there will be more like this. In the past, weather experts in the country have warned that typhoons are getting stronger in China.
But it's not only typhoons.
The weather has been really bad for the country this year, with heat waves, storms, droughts, floods, and devastated crops.
Typhoon Ragasa has been another test of how ready China is. And it's not done yet. There are still cautions of landslides in the mountains and alerts for heavy rain in the next few days.