Originally Posted by
Awesom Andy
Let's get all the facts in 1 post...
In the late afternoon, HKO gave the 2 hours notice that T8 would be hoisted in the early evening, with it eventually being hoisted at around 6pm.
I believe most employees head home at or around this time.
T9 was hoisted at around 11:30pm. While there may be a few workers who are stuck in their office, given the time of the night and that it has been 5.5 hours since T8, I am quite surprised that there are still people out and about.
T10 then followed at around 12:45am. At this time, there really wouldn't be many people about, even for a non-typhoon week night. It has also been almost 7 hours since T8, so it is beyond believe that there are people still trying to get home on the MTR.
Funny enough, in most countries, when a typhoon is coming, people would head home and bunker up. In Hong Kong, during T8, people happily get out of work, and celebrate the no-work-day in style - going yum cha, watching movies, singing karaoke, etc. Guess who's to blame when there's no transport home at the end of the day.
really? Well, I'm a design engineer and we weren't allowed to leave until T8 was hoisted. I wouldn't be surprised if some other jobs they arent allowed to leave earlier (FWIW, I've been to Maxim's at T8 before. and there are also medical staff(not just doctors or nurses, but the lower grade jobs too) and many jobs that require to stay until end of shift. Yes, some ppl were being silly and stay around in the evening, but many ppl don't actually have the benefit of leaving at 4pm (2 hours before hoisting T8). and there are ppl who were landed at T8 and ought to go home(at rare times you'd really hope there's a diversion).
TBH, I would first point my fingers at HKO, because their forecast was totally off whilst Macau had forecasted it much better. then it would be the total lack of crisis management at MTR. Telling passengers to leave the station is just laughable -whoever that made such decision.