A Night with Typhoon

Typhoon is a common phenomenon in Hong Kong, typically happening almost every summer. However, reaching Hurricane Signal no. 10 is a rare occurence. Recently, we had a chance to face such a severe situation.

Last week, the weather forecast indicated that Typhoon Saola was approaching Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Observatory expected to hoist Gale or Storm Signal No. 8 at midnight last Friday. Everyone at the office was ready to have a work-from-home day the following day.

On Friday morning, the weather situation was relatively calm in most urban areas of Hong Kong. Most of us worked from home as usual. However, the weather started to worsen after work – Increasing Gale or Storm Signal No. 9 was hoisted in the evening.

In Hong Kong, some people choose put tape on their windows, hoping it will prevent them from breaking during strong typhoons. However, it has been proven that tape cannot prevent windows from breaking. If the typhoon is strong enough, the windows might still break. Pasting tape can only somewhat prevent windows from scattering if they break. However, in most situations, windows are broken by objects blown by strong winds.

Knowing that Typhoon Saola was very strong, I decided to put tape on the windows, like typical Hong Kong people. However, I ran out of tape, so I could only cover 30% of the windows. Luckily, none of the windows broke during the entire event.

After I put tape on the windows, I started to prepare dinner. However, while preparing the food, my kitchen cabinet kept getting wet. I wiped it repeatedly, only to discover that the windwos were leaking. Feeling frustrated for a while, I asked my girlfriend for assistance. She focused on wiping the kitchen cabinet and other places where leakage was found, while I focused on preparing dinner.

In the end, it took us over two hours to cook our dinner and handle the leaking windows. However, we felt relieved while enjoying our pasta – it was our first dinner cooked by ourselves since moving into the new flat.

It was our first time facing such a bad situation brought by the hurricane. Putting tape on the windows is not the most important precautionary measure, but identifying and sealing the leaking windows. We found that inserting garbage bags between the window frames helped seal the windows. After doing this that night, no more water leaked from the outside.

It was a valuable experience. I don’t want to face it again though.