The strongest tropical storm of 2025 claimed 14 more lives after it caused a mountain lake in Taiwan to burst, sending a wall of water onto the town below.

The aftermath of deadly flooding in Guangfu Township, Hualien County, in eastern Taiwan, caused by a supertyphoon hundreds of miles away that left at least 14 people dead and more than 100 missing. Photo by Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA UPI

Sept. 24 (UPI) -- At least 14 people were killed by flooding in Taiwan and more than 120 remain unaccounted for after torrential rain from supertyphoon Ragasa caused a lake to implode.

The mountain lake in Hualien County in the east of the country burst its banks on Tuesday afternoon, sending a 60 million ton wall of water down the hillside and smashing into the town of Guangfu, 125 miles south of Taipei.

Rescue workers were rushing to reach the area, which is in a remote region far from Taiwan's major population centers along the eastern seaboard and the north.

The flood swept away a major bridge, left cars and motorcycles piled on top of each other and forced more than 5,200 of Guangfu's 8,700 residents to take refuge on the upper floors of their houses, while many left their homes.

Prime Minister Cho Jung-tai ordered an investigation into why evacuation orders issued for Hualien County prior to the disaster were not acted on.

At least six people were injured elsewhere in Taiwan and hundreds of sea crossings and flights were canceled.

The typhoon, 2025's most powerful tropical storm anywhere in the world, which is packing winds of almost 180 mph, passed south of the island, headed toward China, where 2 million people have been evacuated, mostly in Guangdong province.

Authorities there were warning of storm surges of up to 16-and-a-half feet.

Ragasa's epicenter was located in the South China Sea about 70 miles southwest of Macau, moving westwards and expected to cross the Guangdong coast between the cities of Yangjiang and Zhanjiang in the coming hours Wednesday, according to China's National Meteorological Center.

The forecast of the agency, which has dubbed the typhoon "King of Storms," has the system continuing to move westwards, eventually crossing from Guangdong into Vietnam on Thursday evening, albeit as a weakening storm.

Schools, factories and public transport were shut down in at least a dozen cities in Guangdong, home to more than 125 million people, while 38,000 firefighters, more than 5,700 fire trucks and 1,174 boats were on standby, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Transit authorities had 11,000 emergency response workers ready to respond to damage to transport infrastructure, along with nearly 9,000 telecommunications repair workers standing by in major cities in the Pearl River Delta area and western Guangdong.

To the east, in Hong Kong, authorities raised the warning to the maximum 10 signal, meaning hurricane force winds, and ordered people to shelter indoors and away from exposed windows and doors to avoid flying debris.

Most schools, businesses and the Hong Kong International Airport were closed, with hundreds of passengers stranded at Chek Lap Kok after the last flight took off at 6 p.m. local time Tuesday, on a 620-mile hop to Ningbo, almost two hours ahead of time.

Panic buying saw supermarket shelves emptied by the end of Tuesday with stocks of bread, vegetables, meat and instant noodles cleaned out.

Ragasa was arriving from the Philippines, where it swept through the north of the country on Tuesday, killing three people, forcing the evacuation of thousands and leaving a trail of destruction.