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Hong Kong’s weather forecaster issued two black rainstorm signals in six hours. On Tuesday, heavy showers prompted flash floods and wreaked havoc across the city, disrupting many public services and prompting authorities to suspend classes.
The Hong Kong Observatory raised the highest-level rainstorm warning at 5.50am on Tuesday and said it would keep it in force until 5.05pm, when it will be lowered to red or amber. The previous warning was issued at 11.45pm on Monday.
Hong Kong has set a record for the most black rainstorm signals in one year, with the Observatory issuing four such warnings within eight days, according to Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki.
Disruptions across the city
The Observatory said that the North District, Tai Po and Tsuen Wan were being severely affected, warning residents to stay away from watercourses.
A landslip warning was issued, with the forecaster calling on members of the public to stay away from steep slopes and hilly areas. Violent gusts exceeding 90km/h (56mph) were recorded in Cheung Chau at around 8.35am.
According to the Labour Department, employers should promptly make work arrangements for employees during and after rainstorm warnings and extreme conditions. Arrangements include reporting for duty, early release, resuming work and options for remote work.
“If a red or black rainstorm warning signal is issued during working hours, employees working indoors should continue to work as usual unless it is dangerous to do so,” it said.
“Supervisors of employees working outdoors or in exposed areas should suspend outdoor duties as soon as practicable.”
Former Observatory assistant director Leung Wing-mo said: “It is up to companies’ own arrangements.”
As of noon, operations at Queen Mary Hospital’s A&E department and ambulance transfer arrangements resumed normal service.
The Hospital Authority said that severe flooding on some roads at Queen Mary Hospital had disrupted emergency services, prompting the Fire Services Department to send patients to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai.
The Drainage Services Department deployed a pumping machine to drain floodwaters from the hospital, with videos circulating online showing water levels at the main building rising to ankle height.
All morning and whole-day schools, as well as many public services, including those at the Immigration Department, were suspended. The department is set to resume services two hours after the warning is taken down.
All court and tribunal hearings were also suspended.
Record-breaking rainfall
The Observatory said it recorded 355.7mm of rainfall at its headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui as of 2pm, making it the highest daily rainfall recorded for August since records began in 1884.
Between midnight and 8am, rainfall of more than 40mm was recorded in most areas, with the downpour hitting the northeast New Territories the hardest. Parts of Sai Kung and Tai Po were hit by more than 300mm of rainfall.
The black rainstorm warning means heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over the city, exceeding 70mm (2.76 inches) in an hour, and is likely to continue.
The Observatory said areas of intense thundery showers associated with the active southwest monsoon and upper-air disturbances continued to affect the city and the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary.
Analysing the bad weather, former Observatory director Lam Chiu-ying said the rain clusters relentlessly followed one another like a train carriage coming from the east-northeast, driven by the southwest monsoon along the Guangdong coast.
Police received at least 70 cases of flooding and 15 landslide reports across the city. They also received two reports of subsidence on Kotewall Road and Glenealy in the Mid-Levels, and one in Aberdeen.
A vessel sank in Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island, while another capsized in Sam Mun Zai in Sai Kung.
Flash floods swept through urban areas as the Mid-Levels, Central, Pok Fu Lam, Quarry Bay, Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung, Tseun Wan and Tai Po, with muddy water inundating Queen Mary Hospital, car parks and highways.
Transport disruptions
Several MTR stations were affected by the heavy rain. Some exits at Sham Shui Po, Wong Tai Sin, Choi Hung and Tai Po Market were temporarily closed off due to flooding.
The Peak tram and the Central–Mid-Levels escalators suspended operations, while multiple road sections in Tsuen Wan and Tin Shui Wai were also temporarily closed off.
In Tsuen Wan, a green minibus became trapped in floodwaters and needed several police officers to help push it out.
Muddy brown water flowed downhill through parts of Hong Kong Island West, such as Victoria Road, Pok Fu Lam Road and Hill Road.
KMB bus routes between Sheung Tsuen in Tai Po and Tsuen Wan, and Wong Shek Pier and Sai Kung have suspended services, while routes 65K, 73, 73A, 73B and 73C are being diverted.
As of 8am, the Drainage Department confirmed 18 cases of flooding in Sha Tin, Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung, Lee Yue Mun, Tai Po and Tolo Harbour Highway. It deployed pumping machines to clear the water, as well as 180 emergency response teams to inspect 240 flooding blackspots.
In Tseung Kwan O, an open-air car park on flooding-prone King Yin Lane was inundated overnight, with water levels rising to more than halfway up about 20 parked vehicles.
Staff from the Drainage Services Department drained the floodwater from the car park overnight, but it was flooded again in the morning during another heavy downpour.
“Many residents tried to drive their cars away, but some in vain because the engines of the cars did not work,” Sai Kung district councillor Christine Fong Kwok-shan said. “The car park is next to a hilly area and is prone to flash floods.”
She said the pumping machines were effective in clearing up floodwater, which should be applied widely in the city.
She also said staff from the Drainage Department were wading through knee-high floods in Tseung Kwan O and Sai Kung to drain the floodwater overnight.
