Waves crash as Super Typhoon Ragasa approaches the Heng Fa Chuen residential district in Hong Kong on September 23, 2025. Photo: AFP / Leung Man Hei
Hong Kong Island has been effectively shut down, with public transport grinding to a halt and locals told to stay inside, as the region battles with Super Typhoon Ragasa.
The storm has seen schools and workplaces shut, people evacuated and transport severely disrupted, as it bears down on China.
At least one person died in a landslide caused by Super Typhoon Ragasa slamming into the northern Philippines. It was being described as the strongest storm on the planet so far this year.
The worst of the storm was meant to hit Hong Kong in the early hours of Wednesday morning local time and officials have warned locals not to brave it.
Cruzanne Macalligan moved from New Zealand to Hong Kong in 2012, and said she'd seen panic buying, as people hunker down.
"Huge crowds of people on the street, in and out of wet-markets, grabbing all the vegetables, all the fruits, butchers that we have... totally nothing left on their shelves, bakeries completely empty," she said.
"A lot of people have got taped up windows or have been buying big sheets of metal mesh, so they can keep things contained. They're a bit worried about stuff flying away."
Super Typhoon Ragasa has already pounded the northern Philippines, with at least one reported death. Photo: John Dimain / AFP
Macalligan said there had been a lot of warning before Typhoon Ragasa.
"The advice has really been to not try and brave it," she said. "Often in Hong Kong - when we have a T8 signal [warning], which is quite a high signal -, people will still make the effort to get to the office or get to work, but this time round it really is, 'No everyone, you need to hunker down and stay in place'."
This was echoed by the fact Hong Kong international airport was closing from Tuesday evening, Macalligan said, and the city's public transport system was grinding to a halt.
"Sometimes, when we have a typhoon, you have the odd bus or a train that makes it through, but this time, they've really said no, and you can see that encouragement to just stay in place and 'please don't be foolish'," she said.
Macalligan said she was a little anxious for the storm too.
"I have three young children at home, so we're definitely going to have a lot of cabin fever going on," she said. "I would be more anxious, if I hadn't seen Hong Kong, our resilience through it,
"People have been talking about it for days. We have a really good early warning system, so it's not like it's coming as a surprise - but it is just that unpredictability."
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