In the Eye of Nuri

photo source: SCMP

Hi All! It's unbelievable but Hong Kong is tortured by a second typhoon within two weeks. We took a direct hit (for the first time since we're living here) from typhoon Nuri which is raging through our area since early this morning. All flights from and to Chek Lap Kok were cancelled until tomorrow morning and Michael was lucky he could change his return flight from the Mainland to a late night departure yesterday and therefore made it home by 1:30 am before the wind signal was risen to T #3. During the whole day we had the T #9 sign (out of 10) up which at present still remains. The squally wind gusts are between 70-100 km/h. I never experienced a direct hit of such a powerful storm before and it was somewhat exciting to observe that as soon as the eye of the taiphoon is right above the City, the winds die down and a ghostly silence spreads over the whole area. Already when the signal #8 is hoisted all public transportation (ferries, busses, tram) is put on hold except for our subway system called MTR. You are urged to stay at home and the streets are completely deserted until the signal is lowered back to #3. After a previous 3 hour lull the winds are picking up again right now and are forecast to rage throughout the night accompanied by heavy rainfall. Hopefully the devastation in Hong Kong won't be too bad, can't wait to examine this tomorrow, bye.