Rain and strong winds disrupt transport
Exam candidates urged to allow adequate travel time as city faces wet week
Strong winds and heavy rains brought down trees and disrupted transport across Hong Kong including tram services to The Peak, with a waterspout spotted off Clear Water Bay, yesterday.
The Observatory issued a nearly four-hour amber rainstorm warning at 10am – after the same alert was issued the night before – warning of “violent” gusts of wind and flooding in some lowlying and poorly drained areas.
The waterspout was reported at about 9.30am at Clear Water Bay in the New Territories, the Observatory said. Waterspouts are fast-rotating air columns above water that extend down from the base of clouds.
Wind speeds of 105km/h and 100km/h were recorded on Green Island – off the northwest coast of Kennedy Town – and at Cheung Chau respectively at around 11.05am.
The forecaster warned that a trough of low pressure affecting the Guangdong provincial coast was expected to bring persistent heavy rain and squally thunderstorms over the vicinity of the Pearl River Delta today and tomorrow.
The weather service appealed to candidates sitting university entrance exams to allow sufficient travelling time to get to their test venues.
“Members of the public should pay attention to the latest weather information disseminated by the Observatory before going to work or school,” it said.
A toppled tree in the MidLevels resulted in the Peak tram halting services in the afternoon and forced suspension for the rest of day. It remains uncertain whether the service can be resumed today.
A section of Wylie Road in Ho Man Tin was temporarily closed to traffic in the morning because of fallen trees. Authorities had recorded 29 cases of toppled trees across Hong Kong by 7pm.
Strong winds also ripped sections of roof off the platform at University station, causing services at MTR stations on the East Rail line to be delayed by as much as five minutes as maintenance crews carried out emergency repairs. Full service was restored about an hour later.
The MTR Corporation said its maintenance team would conduct a “detailed inspection and follow-up” on the roofing after service hours.
Some high-speed railway services between West Kowloon station and the mainland were also delayed because of the weather.
The speed limit on all lanes of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge was lowered to 50km/h.
Ferry services between Po Toi Island and Stanley’s Blake Pier at 3pm and 4.30pm were also cancelled and replaced by a service to Aberdeen at 3pm and 6pm respectively.
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority reminded candidates sitting Diploma of Secondary Education exams that the tests would go ahead as planned under an amber rainstorm warning.
The authority added that, under a red rainstorm warning, tests would also “generally be held as usual” with the start time pushed back by 15 minutes.
It said exams would be postponed if a black rainstorm warning was issued.
The authority added that if it decided to postpone exams because of bad weather, it would make the announcement two hours before the scheduled start time.
The city is also expected to face a rainy week ahead, caused by a trough of low pressure that will affect coastal areas of Guangdong.
The latest nine-day forecast predicted heavy showers at times and squally thunderstorms until tomorrow.
Guangdong has braced itself for serious flooding from one of the major rivers. Flood warnings have also been issued for several other areas across the province.
The Security Bureau said yesterday it had been agreed with Shenzhen authorities that Hong Kong would be notified as early as possible when a flood discharge on the Shenzhen side was expected.
Guangdong residents are on high alert for flooding, with authorities forecasting water flows in a major river to hit “once-in-100-year” levels this morning.
The provincial flood and disaster prevention department said yesterday that floodwaters in the Bei River, a southern tributary of the Pearl River, were expected to peak at 37.3 metres by 1am, or about 5.8 metres above the warning line.
Warning levels had already been exceeded at 20 monitoring stations along the waterway by Saturday evening.
Northern and western Guangdong have been battered by intense rainstorms since Friday, breaking rainfall records for April in many places.
The cities of Qingyuan, Shaoguan, Huizhou and capital Guangzhou have been particularly hard hit, prompting flood alerts and rainstorm warnings for three days in a row.
According to the National Meteorological Centre, most of the affected areas have reported 200mm to 350mm of rain since the start of the month.
By 8am yesterday, Shaoguan had registered 584.4mm for the month, well above the April record of 417mm set last year.
Dozens of hail and thunderstorm warnings were in effect across the province over the weekend, including orange alerts for Guangzhou, Dongguan, Yangjiang and Yangshan county in Qingyuan.
Orange is the second-highest alert level in the country’s four-tier rainstorm warning system. More heavy rain is expected to fall across Guangdong – one of the country’s most populous provinces – over the next three days, with northern Guangdong the most affected.
In central and northern Guangdong, northeastern Guangxi and southern Jiangxi, cumulative rainfall for the month is forecast to reach 150mm to 300mm, and surpass 400mm in some areas, the centre said.
The provincial disaster prevention department urged its branches to “do their utmost” to ensure the safety of people’s lives and property. The Ministry of Water Resources in Beijing also sent three working groups to Guangdong yesterday.
Officials were told to ensure there were systems in place covering monitoring and early warnings, flood control dispatch, flood diversion, patrol duty and emergency rescue.
Hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their homes in Qingyuan and Shaoguan, according to emergency services. No casualties were reported.
The heavy downpours caused severe waterlogging and landslides, forcing the suspension of some train services and closure of some highways over the weekend.
The wet weather also resulted in delays to dozens of flights at Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou.
Richard Liang, who travelled through the affected areas on a high-speed train from Hunan province yesterday morning, said the rainstorms appeared to have stopped in the main areas but the floods looked “terrible”.
“It’s not raining, but the sky is gloomy. From a distance, the Bei River has swollen and the water is muddy,” he said. “The water level of the rivers had risen, and the ground floors of buildings next to rivers and lakes were flooded. The buildings looked as if they were soaked in the water.”
Cars were also damaged, trees brought down and farmland inundated.
It is the second major flood to hit the province this month. Thunderstorms hit southern parts of Guangzhou two weeks ago, the earliest start to the flood season since 1998, when records were first compiled.
It’s not raining, but the sky is gloomy. The Bei River has swollen and the water is muddy RICHARD LIANG, TRAVELLER