Typhoon Ragasa, which hit the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and southern China last week, was the world’s most powerful storm this year, Guy Carpenter says. 

It reached a strength equivalent to category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, with maximum sustained wind of about 265km/h. 

Ragasa damaged homes in the northern Philippines, caused deaths in Taiwan after a barrier lake burst, and brought severe wind and intense rain to Hong Kong and Macau before making landfall in China’s southern province of Guangdong. 

The storm quickly weakened after reaching land, but it still caused flooding and wind damage to trees and light structures. 

“Despite its high intensity, overall damages reported so far are not as high as initially feared,” reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter says. 

In Taiwan, limited preliminary loss estimates have been released, with the government estimating agricultural damages of $NT257 million ($13 million). 

Guy Carpenter says Hong Kong experienced hurricane wind speeds similar to typhoons Hata in 2017 and Wipha in July this year, but weaker than Mangkhut in 2018. 

A Moody’s RMS update says at landfall last Wednesday in China, Ragasa’s intensity corresponded to a “very strong typhoon” on the Japan Meteorological Agency scale, with an equivalence to category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.