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YANGJIANG, China: 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 kilometers 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 can 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 centered 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 battered
Hong Kong authorities said 101 people were treated at public hospitals for injuries sustained during the typhoon as of Wednesday evening, with more than 900 people seeking refuge at 50 temporary shelters across the city.
The Chinese finance hub recorded hundreds of fallen trees and flooding in multiple neighborhoods.
Many of the city’s tall buildings swayed and rattled in the harsh winds.
About 1,000 flights were affected by Ragasa, the airport authority said Wednesday evening, adding that they expected to return to normal operations within the next two days.
The top typhoon warning was downgraded in Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon after being in force for 10 hours, 40 minutes – the second-longest on the city’s record.
Hong Kong’s weather service ranked the storm the strongest yet in the northwestern Pacific this year.

COPENHAGEN: Drones flew over multiple airports across Denmark and caused one of them to close for hours, police said Thursday after a similar incident this week prompted Copenhagen airport to shut.
The latest incidents in Danish skies follow similar events in Poland and Romania and the violation by Russian fighter jets of Estonia’s airspace, which have raised tensions in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Drones were spotted at Denmark’s airports in Aalborg, Esbjerg, Sonderborg and at the Skrydstrup air base before leaving on their own, police said.
Aalborg airport, located in northern Denmark and one of the country’s biggest after Copenhagen, was shut down before reopening several hours later.
“It was not possible to take down the drones, which flew over a very large area over a couple of hours,” North Jutland chief police inspector Jesper Bojgaard Madsen said about the incident in Aalborg.
“At this time, we have not apprehended the drone operators either,” he added in a statement.
South Jutland police said they had “received several reports of drone activity at the airports in Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup,” late Wednesday evening.
The Esbjerg and Sonderborg airports were not closed because no flights were scheduled there until Thursday morning.
Police there said the drones “flew with lights and were observed from the ground, but it has not yet been clarified what type of drones they are... or what the motive is.”
An investigation was underway with the Danish intelligence service and the armed forces to “clarify the circumstances,” police said.
The probe comes days after police said several large drones flew over Copenhagen airport, shutting the facility for hours.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday described the Copenhagen incident as the “most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure” to date.
“This is part of the development we have recently observed with other drone attacks, airspace violations, and cyberattacks targeting European airports,” Frederiksen said.
Moscow has denied being involved in that incident, and rejected accusations from the governments of Poland, Estonia and Romania over drones or airspace violations by fighter jets.
This week’s drone incidents follow Denmark announcing it will acquire long-range precision weapons for the first time, citing the need to be able to hit distant targets as Russia would pose a threat “for years to come.”
Moscow’s ambassador to Copenhagen, Vladimir Barbin, had called the statement “pure madness.”