Watch live as Typhoon Ragasa, the most powerful storm recorded this year, passes through the Philippines whilst China, Hong Kong and Taiwan go on high alert.
The superstorm with recorded winds of 270km/h has made landfall over sparsely populated northern islands on Monday (22 September), with tens of thousands being evacuated as a result.
The Philippine weather bureau described the typhoon as bringing with it a “high risk of threatening storm surge”, with peak wave heights of over 3 metres.
Ragasa, which has been labelled “potentially catastrophic”, could trigger widespread flooding, landslides, and major damage to homes and infrastructure across affected regions, officials said.
Issuing evacuation warnings ahead of the typhoon, the Philippines Department of the Interior and Local Government said in a statement: “Homes and property can be rebuilt, but lives lost can never be replaced.”
The storm, which is equivalent to a category 5 hurricane, is then expected to move towards Hong Kong, with all passenger flights being suspended for 36 hours starting Tuesday evening.
Australian Airline Qantas Airways has already updated its website with the closures and Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flag carrier, has announced that 500 flights will be cancelled.
In Taiwan, officials have issued land and sea warnings, announced suspensions of some ferry services and flights, and begun small-sale evacuations in mountainous areas.
