Tropical storm coming

As we were preparing to leave Hong Kong for Chengdu this morning, the weather office hoisted typhoon signal #8. This meant the storm is about 180KM away. Yikes! Last night, signal #3 was hoisted. Wind was strong but temperature was bearable at 28C. When I woke up this morning everything changed.

The morning started out kinda normal. From my harbour view room I could see things sprung to live. All sorts of ferries parked away last night began "showing up to work". In the far distance I could see dark clouds with sheets of rain coming our way. Within 30 minutes after I was away, the rain hit. The pictures I will post next will show you what I saw just before the rain hit and during the rain hit. From across the harbour to Kowloon to nothing. Too bad we had to fly this morning; otherwise, it would have been "neat" seeing the nature does it things.

And yes, we had to fly. We are heading from a tropical storm to the most serious earthquake hit province from this May. Sichuan. We are to be in Chengdu where all the rescue operations were launched. No, we are not going there to do any volunteer work. The ever so understanding of my iron-wife's client decided to re-schedule the May workshop to now, to the same area. Go figure. Obvious, this company's HR personal has no brain along with the committee that decided on this. Rule: Thou shall not get close to an earthquake zone at least a year after such a big magnitude shake. I haven't gotten a chance buying any emergency supply; will have to look when I arrive. Flashlights, water, and set up a location for a place to meet in case a quake has hit. The last 3 weeks, there were two 6.1 magnitude after shock that were felt in Chengdu.

I digressed, back to the storm. The usual bustling and hustling streets of Hong Kong below my hotel were empty. Flying debris, occasional sheets of rains and dedicated hotel staff going to work. No one really wanted to drive to the airport; so the Airport Express was jam packed.

Since we are flying up north and the tropical storm cuts from east to west, our flight plan does not get affected. O... we are going to land now after 2 hours of flight. Good timing as everyone is freezing to death. Air Con problem. We are sitting in a fridge. I can see Audrey's breath!!!!