Vicente No.10
Thanks to a close sideswipe by Typhoon Vicente, the No.10 Warning Signal (hurricane-force winds) was raised for the first time since 1999, when Typhoon York opened a can of whoop-ass on the Big Lychee.
While the No.10 flag wasn't hoisted near as long as with York, it was up long enough to keep me awake in the wee hours. Unbeknownst to me, shortly after we went to bed the No.9 flag went up, followed by the No.10 at 12.45am. I'd slept a little more than two hours when my eyes popped open at 2.15am, because my mind was telling me to check for flooding.
Not wishing to endure a repeat of our 2010 flood, I had laid down sandbags earlier in the evening in case the flood-prevention barriers got ripped away by the hard gusts (at one point we were seeing roughly 115kph gusts, while Ngong Ping got as high as 198kph). But the other issue was the landlord still hadn't corrected a drainage problem in the corner of the yard, which meant that if water accumulated there it could creep toward our house. And as predicted, when I checked it the drain was blocked and the corner was full.
Sleep was impossible now; I just had to wait things out. As luck would have it, the warning signal was lowered to No.8 at 3.35am, and as the water had not come any closer I felt it was all right to lay down again. The volume of rainfall in our area was much less than in other parts of the territory, so I concluded the chance of flooding was low.
I managed to sleep until 7am, when I got up to check the weather's current status. As hard as we got smacked the overall damage was minimal. The flood barriers were intact, and a small window leak was contained with a bucket. I'm just glad I wasn't forced to go outdoors during the height of the storm to clear the yard drains, as pieces of nearby construction had been launched into the yard, including two four-foot-long 3x2 planks that I'd just as soon not have had driven into me.
Now that Vicente No.10 (sounds like the name of a cologne, doesn't it?) is history maybe I can get a full night's sleep.
Note: the fun gifs are courtesy Weather Underground Hong Kong
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