Singing in the (Black) Rain

Thanks to the first typhoon of the season, we're being pelted with rain, which is so heavy that the Hong Kong Observatory issued a Black Rainstorm warning, along with the T3 Gale signal, lightning, landslide and flooding cautions.

We got caught in the middle of all of it on our way home. During Black Rain, more than 70 millimetres (about 2.75 inches) of precipitation falls within an hour. It doesn't sound like much, but the territory is hilly, and all that water has to go somewhere.

By the time we got home, the bridge of the pathway leading to our village house no longer covered the creek: it was submerged under a torrent of a fast-flowing river. Crossing it would have been foolish, so we backtracked to another pathway higher up the road.

Wouldn't you know it, a giant mud puddle covered the road where it dipped, but at least it wasn't too deep. I'd had the foresight to wear my waterproof hiking boots, so to save my wife's shoes from ruin I gave her a piggyback ride while she held the umbrella.

We may have kept her shoes safe, but we were pretty well soaked when we reached the gate. Umbrella or no, when the rain is that heavy, and driven by the wind, no one stays dry.

Unless they have a poncho.

Which we have.

Which were in the house. So much for foresight.

The warning should be lifted in a short while, so we don't have to worry about the house being flooded. And we have plenty of food, so we won't have to wade through the river to collect a pizza.

In short, we have no complaints, because we know that elsewhere in Hong Kong, the Black Rain is bringing some folks real suffering.

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