Sunday, June 08, 2008

Worst rainstorms in 50 Years

You had to be here to see what a 'Black rainstorm' warning really means in Hong Kong. I have seen rains like this once back in Bombay many years ago. Then everything shut down for days. This being Hong Kong, all was closed for just half a day but that was upsetting enough! The worst part of heavy rains in Hong Kong are the landslides. Yesterday two people died in a landslide, more than 400 flights were disrupted, the road to the airport was closed for a long while and the streets were flooded.

Even though we were all stuck at home I did not get to do much scrapbooking or blogging. I was busy mopping up water leaking in from every crack and crevice of my old house. And then water started dripping into my studio and I was moving my art supplies to drier places. Right now I have a huge mountain of dye ink pads on my work surface! And even though the sun is visible every now and then today, we have been promised more bad weather by next weekend! Yikes!!







Rare torrential rain blackened the sky and lashed Hong Kong Saturday morning, forcing closure of schools and hospitals, submerging vehicles and widely disrupting traffic in the city. The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning signal at about 5:15 a.m. Saturday and soon upgraded the warning system at 6:40 a.m. to the highest black rainstorm warning signal.

The torrential rains submerged roads in many areas and pedestrians were forced to wade through the knee-deep water. A highway linking the Kowloon to the Hong Kong International Airport was also cut off by inundation of the roadbed and a landslide report near Tung Chung. Hong Kong Airport Authority said a total of 151 flights arriving in or leaving the city had been delayed by Saturday noon due to the bad weather and lightning. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said they had been reported seven landslides in different areas and 31 cases of inundation. (Link)

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