Super Typhoon Ragasa: workers in southern China move to restore communications to islands
Post-storm recovery includes restoring services to Shangchuan and Xiachuan islands in Guangdong, resuming ferries and clearing roads
Ragasa made landfall in Yangjiang, western Guangdong, about 5pm on Wednesday, bringing torrential rain and strong winds that caused flooding and transport disruptions across cities in the province.
The storm’s record strength delivered sustained wind speeds of up to 265km/h (165 mph) on Monday, making it the world’s most powerful typhoon so far this year.
14 dead, over 100 missing in Taiwan from Super Typhoon Ragasa
It severely damaged undersea communication cables, resulting in partial communications and electricity outages on Shangchuan and Xiachuan, two islands around 100km (62 miles) south of Jiangmen and around 70km east of Yangjiang.
These two islands were the closest in Jiangmen to the centre of Ragasa. On Wednesday, Shangchuan recorded maximum gusts of 64.3 metres per second (on the Beaufort scale exceeding level 17) – the strongest gusts ever recorded at Guangdong meteorological station.
In preparation for Ragasa, Guangdong evacuated more than 1 million people. The typhoon had swept through Taiwan and Hong Kong, leaving at least 14 dead and dozens injured. In the Philippines, some 10 people were killed in the storm which made landfall in the northern Philippines on Monday.
There were no reports of typhoon-related casualties in Guangdong by Friday morning.
On Thursday, Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper said that since Wednesday night, some people had lost contact with relatives on the islands and were desperate for updates on the situation there.