Typhoon Vicente

On the same Sunday that we went to play tennis, we were under a cyclone 1 warning. This signals that winds are high and squally rain showers are in the area as a result of a tropical depression/storm. This storm was set to skirt south of Hong Kong and bring a couple of days of rain and winds. By later that day the warning was raised to a Cyclone 3 - stronger winds, more rain.


Cyclone warnings are T1. T3, T8, T9 and T10. (What happened to 2 and 4 through 7, I have no idea.) Anyway, Monday morning arrived with the T3 warning still in place. The showers were spotty until about 1 PM when the rain began in earnest. The winds kept increasing and there was no let up in the rainfall. By 4 PM they were anticipating raising the level to T8. It seems that the tropical storm had suddenly increased in intensity and changed direction. It was now heading directly for Hong Kong.


The T8 warning was issued at 5:40 PM. This means that within an hour all above ground public transportation stops, all businesses, schools, government offices and most shops close immediately. We have been here for two T8 warnings before this one, but we could already tell this was to be different. The winds kept escalating and there was no let up in the rain. Ken arrived home shortly before the warning was raised. We settled in for the evening with no idea of what was to come. 


With each succeeding hour the winds escalated until there was a constant thrumming on the windows and the view was also constant...

This was all we saw until the following morning. At 11 PM Ken went to bed. The bedroom is on the more protected side of the apartment and was marginally quieter. I chatted from time to time with our friend Janet who lives two floors above us and was having the same experience we were. We concurred that this was way worse than any T8 we had seen and seemed to be getting worse. At 11:20 PM T9 was issued. It is hard to describe the noise, the swaying of the building, the humming of the windows, not to mention the water being forced through some of the window seams. Around 12:30 I decided to try and go to bed. Even though Ken was sleeping like a baby, I could not drift off. As I lay there, it seemed that things were actually getting worse (and they were). I got up around 1:15 AM to check and I found that the T10 Severe Typhoon warning had been issued at !2:45 AM. It was so noisy and scary in our living room that I retreated back to the bedroom and eventually drifted in and out of a fitful sleep till about 6 AM. Ken woke shortly before me and came to tell me that we were still at T8. He had slept through and completely missed T9 and T10. 


In checking out the apartment after our night of wind and rain, we found minimal leaking through the windows and our exhaust fan whirred and sprayed water all over the kitchen (but not too bad all things considered). Other than that and a lack of sleep, we came through very well. Since T8 was still in effect, Ken got most of the morning off. He took a conference call from home and then we headed down the mountain to grab some lunch and see the aftermath.


Before we left the apartment, we noticed that parts of Victoria Harbor looked like a parking lot.

Victoria Harbor is considered one of the safest deep water harbors in the world. The day before boats of all sizes headed for the typhoon shelters along the shoreline and the larger ships weighed anchor in the more protected areas between the islands.


As we headed down the escalator stairs, we saw an umbrella from someone's roof garden, lots of leafy debris and an awning on one of the restaurants that had seen better days.

Of course, the T8 had only been lowered for a short while but already the cleanup was beginning.

After a bit of lunch I headed back to the apartment and saw one of the saddest sights of my tour. Just below our street there is a tiny little park along the escalator that is covered with trees and a pleasant place to take a rest. Unfortunately, every tree covering this little haven received some kind of damage. 

Once back home I took an overhead tour of some of the rooftop gardens on the buildings around us. In every case furniture, plants and assorted heavy objects were blown over/around. We even had to help Janet upend two extremely heavy planters on her rooftop that had been blown over during the night.

The last time a T10 signal was issued it was 1999. This storm defied all normal patterns in that it went from a tropical depression to a severe typhoon level 10 in just 20 hours. Its trajectory took a sharp right turn that put it on a collision course with Hong Kong. Luckily it veered off just short of landfall so that we did not take a direct hit. The eye passed within 100 km of Hong Kong and the strongest wind gusts were clocked at 255 km/hr with sustained winds at 165 km/hr. Typhoon Vicente left its mark for several days after it moved off. We had six straight days of rain. On Saturday we saw our first sunshine since the preceding Sunday.


Having grown up along the east coast, I remember a few hurricanes from my childhood. I can tell you that experiencing one at sea level on the main floor of a house is a completely different experience that being on the 35th floor and half way up a mountain. It was an experience we will not forget - but once was enough.