Time for typhoons

This is the time of year when people in Southeast Asia start to worry about typhoons. The world “typhoon” comes from the Chinese characters for “great wind” and that truly recognizes the massive power of these swirling storms.

Living in Hong Kong for more than 25 years, Sharon experienced plenty of typhoons. In the early days, these could be destructive, with squatter huts swept from hillsides, vessels sunk or cast ashore and people killed by flying debris or landslides. As time went on, however, so the warning systems, preparations and building regulations became ever more efficient. Today, typhoons are still disruptive but, in Hong Kong at least, they cause little real damage. However, elsewhere in Southeast Asia they can still be very dangerous. Typhoons begin out at sea, gathering power and strength as they race towards the land. They generally blow themselves out once they hit land but they can wreak havoc in coastal areas.

In Hong Kong, the warning system consists of a Number One Signal, which means people should stand by; Number Three means that a typhoon is heading towards HK; Number Eight means everyone should stay indoors, put up typhoon shutters, tape across glass and make other preparations. Schools and offices shut down. Number Ten typhoons are the worst of all. It may seem strange that some numbers are missing, but this is because the system is based on a meteorological table which takes into account wind direction and most people never use them.

Sharon recalls:

“The worst typhoon for me, I remember, was a Number Ten typhoon. Phillip was at work in the control centre of the Marine Department and I was at home, with my two young children in our 27th floor flat with a beautiful sea view. Being on the sea at the west of Hong Kong Island, in Pokfulam, the typhoon hit right on our block.

“Phil had put the wooden shutters across the balcony but, suddenly, one of the living room windows blew in. There was glass all over the floor and the curtains were blowing horizontal as the driving rain flew in. Ornaments had fallen and broken, light bulbs were swinging furiously. Even the water in my aquarium was splashing about as the whole building shook with the force of the typhoon. The fish obviously knew there was something was afoot as they were all hiding in shells. There wasn´t a fish to be seen.

“I knew I had to get the children out of the flat to safety, as more windows could blow in at any time and there was glass everywhere. I was really quite worried. I got all the curtains closed as I thought this would help to stop the glass flying about.

“I decided to go next door to my neighbour across the lift lobby. But I couldn´t get the front door open because of the wind pressure. I pulled and pulled but it wouldn’t budge. I was carrying Julia and James was holding onto my legs.
I called for help as loud as I could. My neighbours, John and Annie, were almost immediately in the lobby and shoving on my door from the outside. Gradually, they managed, in the end, to get it open. We dashed out and the door slammed behind us. We got into their flat, where no windows had gone and which was safe and stayed there until the end of the typhoon when Phil came home the following day. He said many ships had sunk or run aground.

“That was the worst typhoon I remember and I often think about it. I can´t remember its name or the year. Perhaps it was Typhoon Hope, which is a bit of a bloody stupid name for a typhoon.

“In another typhoon, Phil was at home this time. We decided to move a dressing table away from the windows in the bedroom. We were just about to get hold of each end to move it across to the opposite side of the room. But before I could bend down, the very heavy air conditioner blew right out of the wall, across the room, and crashed through the dressing table mirror, destroying the drawers as well, and skidded across the floor making big grooves. We had to run out and shut the door and abandon the room.

“That was a lucky escape as I could have been bending right where the air conditioner hit but for a few seconds.”

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.