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| Passengers swamped HK Airport with the departure of Typhoon Wipha (RTHK) |
The Hong Kong Airport Authority has rushed to clear a backlog of flights that were cancelled or delayed in the wake of the onslaught of Typhoon Wipha, which caused the hoisting of T10 for about seven hours yesterday.
An estimated 100,000
passengers on 500 flights were affected by the disruptions, and a big number of
them had started trooping to the airport since yesterday afternoon when the
alert level was lowered to T8, then T3.
Many others decided to
take their luck, and ended up getting stranded at the airport from two to three
days.
The Airport Authority
said it expected a total of 1,076 flights to arrive and depart Hong Kong within
today, Monday.
The Authority added
its operations have returned to normal, aided by the flight rescheduling system
it is using to help get stranded passengers get on their planes.
It said earlier that
more than 230 flights departed and arrived between last night and this morning
after Wipha left Hong Kong and is reported to be heading to Vietnam.
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| Passengers anxiously scan the flight board to check their new departure time |
While all typhoon
signals were cleared early this morning, Hong Kong will still experience heavy
and intermittent rain with squally thunderstorms over the next few days under
the influence of the outer rainbands of Wipha.
The typhoon, which was
given a Thai woman’s name meaning “splendor” or “radiance,” was the first to
cause the hoisting of T10 in the past two years, and only the fifth in the past
two decades.
While it toppled more
than 700 trees and caused a number of people to seek treatment at hospitals,
Wipha’s average wind speed of 140 km/hr was among the lowest in its category.
Renowned meteorologist
Leung Wing-mo said Hong Kong is simply "lucky" as it experienced
relatively minimal damage compared to past storms under the T10 Typhoon signal,
as he noted that the situation would have been entirely different if Wipha's
path had been 10 kilometers further north.
An expert meteorologist
told the press today that it was just lucky that Wipha’s eyewall was nearer
south Cheung Chau than the urban areas. If it veered just 10 kilometers north,
more areas across the city would have experience hurricane or near-hurricane
force winds.
Another lucky event
was that the typhoon came closest to Hong Kong at midday, when the tide was
receding, otherwise it could have caused storm surges, which could be
devastating.
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