Hundreds of thousands of people in southern China were clearing up on Thursday after powerful Typhoon Ragasa crashed through Guangdong, ripping down trees, destroying fences and blasting signs off buildings.

Ragasa churned into Guangdong, home to tens of millions of people, with winds up to 145 kilometres per hour, on Wednesday after sweeping past Hong Kong and killing at least 14 in Taiwan.

Fallen trees, road signs and debris were strewn across streets in Yangjiang.

A light rain and breeze still lingered as residents worked to clean up the damage.

Electricity still had not returned in one residential district, a local restaurant owner said, the roof of his business completely caved in on one side.

On Hailing – an island administered by Yangjiang – relief workers attempted to clear a huge tree that had fallen across a wide road.

Cars drove on muddy tracks to get around the wreckage as the team worked to saw off branches.

Ragasa's passage in Taiwan killed at least 14 and injured dozens more when a decades-old barrier lake burst in eastern Hualien county, according to regional officials who late Wednesday revised the death toll down from 17.

Authorities initially said 152 people were unaccounted for, but later made contact with more than 100 of them and were still trying to confirm the actual number of missing.

The storm made landfall on the mainland near Hailing Island at around 5pm on Wednesday.

By that point mainland authorities had already ordered businesses and schools to shut down in at least 10 cities across the nation's south, affecting tens of millions of people.

Nearly 2.2 million people in Guangdong were relocated by Wednesday afternoon, but local officials later said several cities in the province started lifting restrictions on schools and businesses. (AFP)