The Greater Bay area takes the heat of super Typhoon Ragasa, the most intense storm in 2025, as it sweeps across all the regions on Wednesday, prompting a No. 10 hurricane signal in Hong Kong. The ferocious wind and sudden rainfall bring an unprecedented experience for cities’ newcomers. 

After Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, Ragasa is expected to be the strongest typhoon in Hong Kong’s history, according to the former observatory director Shun Chi-ming on Tuesday.

According to the Hong Kong Observatory, Typhoon Ragasa sustained a maximum wind speed of 195 kilometres per hour, which makes it more intense than Super Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, which recorded a maximum wind speed of 185 kilometres per hour.

Chen Guowei, a 24-year-old physiotherapist born and raised in Yunnan Dehong, came to Shenzhen Dapeng New Area after graduating last year. “I have never seen a real typhoon before. It’s really crazy,” said Chen, living in the hotel next to the beach provided by his company.

Prompted by the weather forecast and messages from families and corporations, he decided to move into the hotel inside Taikang Home Penguyaun, the elderly community he works in. 

“I don’t really have to work during the typhoon and can live in this expensive hotel, which costs about 500 yuan a night,” Chen said in the video interview.

Dubsy Eli, a Nigerian international student at City University of Hong Kong, is also experiencing his first T10 typhoon. 

“It’s not my first typhoon, but it’s the biggest one. I bought so many fruits to survive,” Dubsy said in a video interview, waking up several times at night to check the weather outside his apartment in Prince Edward. 

“Back in my hometown, we only experienced heavy winds. But raining with big winds is so exciting for me,” said Dubsy. He is staying in and watching Netflix with his two-day class suspension from the university.

“It’s such a huge welcome from the Great Bay Area,” said Chen in a follow-up text interview after the typhoon. “Guess I will need to get used to this,” he added.

Ragasa is named by the Filipino government, meaning “rapid” or “fast motion.” 

Hong Kong has suspended all classes in schools on Sep. 24 and 25 as Typhoon Ragasa approaches.

In the neighbouring city of Shenzhen, the municipal government implemented its “Five Stops” policy on the afternoon of Sep. 23. 

The policy halts construction, business, and market operations from 2pm, with city operations being suspended from 8pm, while school has been closed since the evening of Sep.22.