China’s Guangdong province appears to escape the worst damage from Super Typhoon Ragasa
Despite gusts that reached speeds of more than 240km/h, local authorities had not reported any deaths as of Wednesday afternoon
The city of Shenzhen reported wind speeds of around 200km/h (120mph) – higher than 2018’s Super Typhoon Mangkhut – but as the storm moved west across the province later in the day, these slackened to around 145km/h as it made landfall near the city of Yangjiang, where some residents reported that power and water supplies had been cut off.
Earlier in the day, even higher wind speeds – of more than 240km/h – were recorded at a local monitoring station in Jiangmen in the west of the province.
By the evening, major cities in the Pearl River Delta had started removing restrictions and downgrading their storm alerts.
According to a social media account run by the China Meteorological Administration, satellite images suggested the storm was weakening on Wednesday afternoon and may be downgraded from “super typhoon” status to a “strong typhoon”.
Mangkhut killed at least four people in mainland China, and caused economic damage over more than 4.2 billion yuan (US$590 million), but on Wednesday the Shenzhen city government said: “No injuries have been reported, and the city is operating smoothly and steadily.”