Saturday, September 2, 2023

When Typhoon Saola was still a T8 (Photo-essay)

As the Dinah Washington song which I first heard in Chungking Express goes: "What a difference a day makes."  When I went to bed last night, the T10 signal was in place in Hong Kong.  But Typhoon Saola has moved far away enough from the city that only a T1 signal is currently effect.
 
Actually, when I woke up this morning, the T10 signal had already downgraded to a T8.  And even though it stayed at T8 up until late in the afternoon, the weather was calm for much of today; with little wind and not that much rain encountered when I went out for a walk along the Victoria Harbourfront after having been cooped up for some 36 hours in my apartment, and the only signs that there was still a typhoon in the area being the darkened skies and clouds that looked menacing but actually weren't anymore!
 
Five years ago, I also had walked along the section of the Victoria Harbourfront -- and had seen more signs of destruction in the aftermath of Severe Typhoon Mangkhut's visit.  I guess it's as expected -- since, as the account known as Waterfront Runner pointed out over on Twitter, Saola was actually smaller (even while being more intense) than Mangkhut!
 
Even while the T8 signal was up, some boats had decided
the waters were calm enough to leave the typhoon shelter
 
Still, it also was the case that a number of boats
were content to remain anchored at the
Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter
 
Typhoon Mangkhut: there suddenly be a lot of dragonflies about!
 
And while I didn't see any boats sunk by the typhoon this time around,
I did spot typhoon damage on land such as this tilted over guard box!
 
A man bailing water out of his dinghy
 
Broken bits of decorative panels scattered a section 
of the path along the harbourfront
 
A helicopter coming into land in T8 conditions which
presumably had flown over from an Outlying Island
with a patient bound for a Hong Kong Island hospital

One of the tree casualities of the typhoon -- but, honestly, there 
really wasn't that much typhoon damage that I could see (and report)! :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi There,

From what I saw yesterday, there had been a lot of twisted trees around where I live. Those trees had been twisted till they break.

I have been to Silvermine Bay and Cheung Chau today. Lots of broken branches in both places. I also saw a few fallen trees in Cheung Chau up the hills.

T

YTSL said...

Hi T --

I think the southern part of Hong Kong (including southern Hong Kong Island) may have been hit hardest by Super Typhoon Saola. In any case, the damage was nowhere as extensive as from Severe Typhoon Manghkhut. Hong Kong was pretty lucky this time around!

Anonymous said...

Hi There,

I went out before signal #8 was lowered. The damage outside the main entrance of HK Park was quite a scene. Many broken branches. Some had even fallen into the pool, even the deep water circular one toward the end of the fountain. The park was closed thus I did not wander in.

I also went to the pool at Cyberport on Sunday. Also some broken branches there. No birds. In previous weeks I spotted Kingfishers there. Those are likely living there.

I can send you photos if you like (both the damage and the Kingfisher). I have a series of lucky ones that caught a Kingfisher diving in and coming back up.

T

YTSL said...

Hi again T --

Thanks for the report! One other thing I've noticed re this typhoon's aftermath: the clean-up wasn't as quick as for a number of previous ones. E.g., there was a tree with some snapped branches near my place and it wasn't dealt with for a few days. Quite surprising, actually!

Thanks too for the offer to send photos but I'm good! :)