Typhoon parties may be gone – but not the memories, not yet
Noul was big. Very big.
The stats don’t lie.
The strongest typhoon to hit China this year and the third closest to Hong Kong this century.
350 flights cancelled, over 2,000 passengers stranded. 140 millilitres of rain in parts of the New Territories.
Fortunately, minimal damage done, and thankfully no human casualties.
In fact, no-one batted an eyelid.
Whilst some might have been hoping for time off work, the days of ‘typhoon parties’ are long gone. Technology, pandemics, and the letters WFH have seen to that.
But memories remain.
Stories told and retold.
Typhoon parties may be gone – but not the memories, not yet
Photo courtesy of FB, source unknown
As when in September 1983, Typhoon Ellen washed the 6,000-tonne freighter, the City of Lobito, on to a beach on Cheung Chau, leaving it stranded just 30 meters from a block of flats. Imagine being that domestic helper drawing back the curtains in her flat that morning. And then seeing - not the rising sun as expected - but a long-lost cousin, one of the 21 Filipino crew aboard the ill-fated ship.
It’s tempting to think that these events are now past. That our sophisticated technology and state-of-the-art warning systems will prevent anything like this happening again.
Beware of such complacency.
Spare a thought for Rebecca Papin, on holiday this past weekend with her two young children in Biscarrosse, near Cap Ferret peninsular in France. She awoke after a good night’s sleep to find the town completely deserted. Having used earplugs overnight, she had missed the 2.30am warning from the Government that the wildfire was getting close and that everyone should evacuate as soon as possible. Unfortunately, she was then unable to leave because all the roads were already on fire.
We can only hope that she has managed to survive. That she’ll be telling this story herself for years to come.
Over reliance on technology can foster complacency.
As George Bernard Shaw is reputed to have said (but in fact didn’t – the closest was a journalist named William H. Whyte): “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place’.
It remains the single biggest problem – somethings never change.
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The Connect Family
