Typhoon Podul, the eleventh named storm of the season, struck Taiwan’s southeastern Taitung County at about 1 p.m. on 13 August with sustained winds nearing 155 km/h and gusts reported at up to 191 km/h. Authorities evacuated more than 5,500 people and cancelled hundreds of flights, while the Central Emergency Operations Center said at least 143 people were injured and one remained missing. Businesses and schools across southern and eastern Taiwan were ordered shut as the storm swept westward across the island. Having weakened to a tropical storm, Podul crossed the Taiwan Strait and brushed Hong Kong early on 14 August. The Hong Kong Observatory issued its highest “black” rainstorm warning at 7:50 a.m., triggering the closure of schools, outpatient clinics and government offices and forcing the postponement of a high-profile court hearing for jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Macau closed schools as hourly rainfall approached 110 mm in parts of the city. Podul made a second landfall along the coast of Zhangpu County in China’s Fujian Province at 12:30 a.m. on 14 August, before driving heavy squalls into Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi, where meteorological stations logged more than 70 mm of rain in an hour. Flight-tracking data showed about one-fifth of departures at several southern airports were cancelled, and road and rail links faced temporary suspensions. China’s Ministry of Water Resources placed neighbouring Guizhou Province under a Level-IV flood-control emergency as further downpours were forecast. Beijing announced 430 million yuan (US$60 million) in additional disaster-relief funds on 14 August, lifting total allocations since April to at least 5.8 billion yuan. Analysts warned that increasingly intense and slow-moving tropical cyclones pose rising economic risks to China’s southern industrial belt, underscoring the need for stronger coastal infrastructure and emergency preparedness.