HONG KONG — Flights at Hong Kong International Airport resumed Thursday morning following a 36-hour suspension, as the city reopened businesses, transportation services, and some schools after being struck by Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful cyclone this year.
The storm, which swept across the northern Philippines and Taiwan killing 14 people, made landfall in Yangjiang, southern China, on Wednesday before weakening into a tropical storm as it moved away from Hong Kong.
Authorities raised the city’s highest typhoon signal 10 for most of Wednesday, with Ragasa leaving more than 100 people injured. By Thursday, the Hong Kong Observatory lowered the alert to signal 3, though kindergartens and some schools remained closed.
The storm caused huge waves along Hong Kong’s eastern and southern coasts, submerging roads and flooding residential areas. At the Fullerton hotel on the island’s south, seawater shattered glass doors and swamped the lobby, though no injuries were reported. The hotel said operations had returned to normal.
The Airport Authority said airlines began resuming flights from 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) Thursday, with all three runways in use. “It is anticipated that flights will be scheduled until late into the night tomorrow, handling over 1,000 flights at the normal level,” the authority said, warning of heavy passenger traffic through Friday.
City officials reported that more than 1,000 trees had fallen, around 85 cases of flooding, and several collapsed roads were under urgent repair. Ahead of Ragasa’s arrival, authorities had distributed sandbags in low-lying areas, while residents rushed to stockpile supplies, leading to empty supermarket shelves and soaring vegetable prices.
Ragasa’s peak strength over the Philippine Sea placed it among the most powerful cyclones ever recorded in the western Pacific. According to meteorologists, its intensity surpassed that of Hurricane Helene, which caused widespread destruction in the Atlantic earlier this month, underscoring a year of unusually severe tropical storms worldwide. Experts say that warmer ocean temperatures, influenced by climate change and El Niño conditions, may have contributed to Ragasa’s rapid intensification.
The storm has now weakened but continues to disrupt regional transport and supply chains, with authorities in southern China and Taiwan still on high alert for flooding and landslides in the coming days.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
- EDGARDO HERNAL
- EDGARDO HERNAL
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