[Leica] Re: Thoughts from Hong Kong after Typhoon York OFF TOPIC

[Cummer Family <cummer@asiaonline.net>]

Hello Luggers,
In the latest digest someone asked Dr. Joseph Yao about Typhoon York and I
thought I would add my 2 cents. I made it back from Beijing late Wednesday
afternoon when the Typhoon signal was at #3. (Hong Kong has a series of
numbers indicating Typhoon severity by numbers related to wind speed - they
progress from #3 (businesses still open, transport running) to #8
(businesses and schools closed, transport limited, ferries stopped) to #10
(winds in excess of 150km!) About 3 am Thursday the signal went to #8 which
pleased my daughter mightily (no school) and about 6 am it went to #10. We
live on the 35th floor of a downtown apartment building (spectacular views
of Central and the harbour when it is clear). At the height of the storm
the rain lashing across our 35th floor balcony was like a fire hose,
hissing and foaming over the table. Most every window leaked - but only a
little for the most part. The exhaust fans in the bathrooms howled and the
exhaust fan shutters clattered and banged. We did not put the typhoon
shutters down in the living room for fear we couldn't get them up again.
Most every flight was cancelled and long distance flights were diverted to
Taipei. This was maybe in reaction to the flipping over of the China
Airlines plane two weeks ago in the last typhoon.  Forty roads were closed
in Hong Kong including Gloucester Road in Central where windows blew out of
Immigration and Revenue Towers - a crane blew down across the airport
highway - a container was blown into the harbour in Central. We stayed home
and ate wieners and beans and watched old movies - Sound of Music and the
King and I. For dinner we had hamburger in wine sauce - not bad for being
typhoon bound! Today (Saturday) I have been out around town taking pictures
of the damage trying out my recently  purchased Voigtlander Skopar. In the
parking lot of the HK Yacht Club there are several ancient trees uprooted.
We will miss their shade when we park in future. All over downtown many old
trees have had their tops twisted off and there are branches and parts of
tree trunks lying everywhere. On the tops of several glass clad buildings
including the beautiful Central Plaza Building there are several panels
gone - and several panels punctured - some at very high floors. The main
roads have been swept of the glass and debris but it hasn't been carted
away and lies by the side of the road glittering in the gutters.
It is amazing that only one person was killed (and a wind surfer is still
lost and presumed dead - it was the ride of his life, I guess) but damage
and clean up estimates are in the billions of dollars. There was an article
in this morning's "South China Morning Post" - a reprint of a thought piece
in the British "Guardian" by Martin Kettle. He pointed out that regional
Asian disasters do not rate much coverage in the World wide media -
dominated by networks like CNN with their 24 hour coverage - and how all
media find it easy to pick up the US feeds (we get ABC and CBS news here
every morning on the local channels for example) so Hurricane Floyd reports
submerged reports on Typhoon York "doomed to regional media oblivion".
Thought you might find interesting this personal report on York. If not,
sorry to have used the band width.
Cheers
Howard Cummer