Dramatic Footage Highlights Danger as Typhoon Matmo Batters Coastal Regions

Typhoon Matmo, a powerful tropical cyclone that recently unleashed fierce winds and torrential rain across parts of Southeast Asia and Southern China, has become the subject of a viral video that vividly captures the sheer, terrifying force of the storm. The footage, widely circulated across social media platforms, shows a man perilously clinging to his door as gale-force winds threaten to rip both him and the entire fixture away.

The unsettling clip, which has generated significant online buzz and widespread concern, serves as a stark reminder of the destructive power of a major typhoon. While the exact location and identity of the individual remain unverified in the initial viral spread, the scene is consistent with the conditions experienced in the regions hardest hit by Typhoon Matmo, particularly coastal areas in China’s Guangdong and Hainan provinces where the storm made landfall.

A Battle Against the Wind

The short, dramatic video shows a man battling to secure a large door—presumably the entrance to his shop or home—against a relentless, cyclonic blast of wind. Rain lashes down, reducing visibility, but the force of the wind is undeniable as the door buckles and strains, with the man’s full body weight barely enough to counteract the massive pressure. In a moment that has gripped viewers globally, the man appears to lose his footing, and the door, with him still gripping the handle, is nearly torn completely from its hinges and swept down the street. It is only through a desperate, last-second struggle that he manages to pull the door back and secure his temporary safety, illustrating a truly harrowing near-miss.

The incident underscores the extreme danger posed by ignoring official warnings and attempting to secure property during the peak intensity of a severe tropical storm. Typhoon Matmo, which reached the intensity of a Category 2-equivalent storm with maximum sustained winds of up to 150 km/h (94 mph) near its core at landfall in Guangdong, brought widespread disruption.

Matmo’s Path of Destruction

Typhoon Matmo formed in early October and followed a path that first impacted the Philippines, where it was known locally as Typhoon Paolo, causing significant flooding and requiring the evacuation of tens of thousands. It then intensified as it tracked toward the South China Sea, forcing authorities in Southern China to issue the highest-level weather alerts and implement mass evacuation protocols for hundreds of thousands of residents in coastal areas of Guangdong and Hainan.

Beyond the viral video, the storm resulted in:

• Mass Evacuations: Nearly 350,000 people were evacuated in Southern China as a precautionary measure.
• Infrastructure Damage: The typhoon severely disrupted transport, with flights, ferry services, and rail lines suspended. Reports included overturned trucks and damaged structures, highlighting the extent of the wind damage.
• Flooding: Torrential rains from the storm and its remnants triggered significant flooding in inland China and later caused fatal floods and landslides in Northern Vietnam, where the storm ultimately weakened.

The viral footage of the man and the door has become a powerful, if terrifying, social media symbol of human vulnerability in the face of nature’s most extreme weather events, prompting online discussions about storm preparedness and the importance of heeding severe weather warnings. The video stands as a stark visual testament to the perilous conditions that millions endured across the affected regions during Typhoon Matmo’s passage.