Typhoon Dujuan
 

Looks a biggie. All hotels full. Good luck to anyone stuck tonight

CATHAY PACIFIC SUSPENDS ALL FLIGHTS DUE TO TYPHOON

Cathay Pacific Airways this afternoon confirmed that the airline will suspend the arrival and departure of all of its flights in and out of Hong Kong at 5pm local time due to the arrival of Typhoon Dujuan.

Current weather forecasts suggest that all flights scheduled to arrive and depart before that time will be able to operate normally.

A sudden worsening of conditions may force schedule changes sooner. Passengers are therefore advised to call the following numbers to check the status of arriving and departing flights, or check the arrival and departure information posted on the airline’s website www.cathaypacific.com.

Chinese language: 2747 8888
English language: 2747 8999

Passengers whose flights will be suspended this evening should call the same numbers from 7am tomorrow (Wednesday) morning for an update on their departure time.

The airline’s in-town check-in at Hong Kong and Kowloon stations, as well as its online, kiosk and telephone check-in services will remain closed until further notice.

Link for anyone wanting to watch the weather...

http://www.underground.org.hk/

I've just checked in at the MO to pass the time in colonial style. Snagged a HK $1,688 rate for a corner harborview suite (the better to watch the action) including breakfast.

Yep. Got a call at 09:00 local telling me I was going to be rerouted (I only bought the ticket yesterday evening).

Sadly CX's BKK office doesn't pursue the most enlightened of rerouting proceedures (There's space on QF direct, therefore no chance of going via SIN to catch the BA J Beds).

Good luck to all of those stuck in HK. I'm amazed CX is simply closing everything at 17:00 - leaving anyone needing help with only a phone number; this stikes me as unusually malicious for one of the better carriers.

Regards,
Alex

[This message has been edited by alexwuk (edited 09-02-2003).]

Best wishes to all who are in HK now. Pickles seems to have an excellent idea, though I'm not sure how much he'd be able to see while the rain is pelting. One of the most amazing sights I've ever seen is the sky after a hurricane (the Atlantic's version of a typhoon) - incredible colors, and fantastic cloud formations racing across the heavens.


As for alexwuk:

"Unusually malicious"? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you have never been in, maybe never seen pictures of a hurricane or typhoon. Otherwise, your comments would be those of the most blundering of dunderheads: No one, with the exception of public safety and emergency workers, should be out during a typhoon, with torrents of rain blown into horizontal sheets by winds of 160km/h or more. I would expect the building housing CX offices to be closed and locked, and it's folly to think that some air traveller would be walking down the street -- as if you even *could* walk down the street in those conditions -- to the CX office.

With all due respect to wideman, most typhoons that we get in HK are no worse than a fairly normal winter storm as I very regularly experienced being brought up on the coast on the UK.

Unfortunately, the same mentality that brought you the SARS hysteria (when no more people died of pneumonia this year than last yera, just some of the cases had a new name) closes the whole territory down, with some honourable exceptions.

We went out to our usual local restaurant for dinner then down to the cinema to take in a movie. Getting home was a little trickier than usual due to no taxis or buses, but we got within walking distance by MTR then walked up the hill (because the escalator was switched off, presumably because someone believed it might blow away).

Throughout all the time we were outside I had my umbrella up and not once was the wind strong enough to turn it inside out or take it from my hand.

If I had had a teacup I could have put Dujuan in it.

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 09-02-2003).]

All CX flight expected return to normal until 1000LT wednesday morning.

And the complaints start...

From the South China Morning Post:
Given that CX were advising on their website that flights would be suspended from 5pm from at least 10am that morning, and knowing that a tropical cyclone is about to pass over HK, one does have to wonder why anyone would proceed to the airport without checking on the status of their flight.

[This message has been edited by B-HXB (edited 09-02-2003).]

With all due respect to christep, there is good reason to close down HK when a reasonably strong typhoon is in the near vicinity (at least, I put it at a much less hype than SARS, which I agree became vaguely ridiculous.)

The experience of a typhoon varies dramatically depending on where you are situated in Hong Kong. One of the biggest complaints about the timing of T8 signals (the warning which shuts down offices and transport, eventually) is that it often comes after conditions in the outlying islands or New Territories have already deteriorated quite badly, but before things have worsened in Central and TST. It's really hard to get a warning system right for the wide conditions that the territory experiences in bad weather.

For example, last night about 8pm when I presume Mid-levels residents would happily have been heading out to dinner as normal, I was checking the HK observatory website for updates. The 10-min mean winds in Central and TST were in the low 30's km/hr at that point, while on the outlying island of Cheng Chau and at Chek Lap Kok, the winds were up in the high 80's km/hr, and up in the New Territories was receiving a hammering of 97km/hr. I believe winds later topped 110km/hr in places in the NT, and even now on Cheng Chau the prevailing wind is still 59kn/hr, while inner Victoria Harbour is expereincing 12km/hr. (Note, these are sustained wind speeds taken as 10min averages; gusts are higher, and also this differs from the US convention which quotes sustained mean wind speeds using 1min averages: conversion is 10min average = 0.88 * 1min average, i.e. 10 min averages look lower than 1min averages. To confuse it more, Australians are used to hearing their storms winds quoted by maximum wind gust speed, obviously much higher than sustained winds!)

Clearly why those clever merchants chose Victoria Harbour as their base several hundred years ago, and not the outlying islands like Lantau....

Thus my experience, living in Discovery Bay on Lantau, just over the mountain from the airport, was a bit different to christep's. (However, we were lucky last night, we were also partially protected from the prevailing wind direction, unlike a month ago when the even milder Typhoon Imbudo caused floods in our loungeroom and study due to driving rain during a T3 warning! If you are on an exposed hill and the wind and rain is right at you, there can be problems.) We've just got a few trees down around the place out here this morning, nothing major, but last evening there was no-one out and about out here, that's for sure. CLK would not have been a particularly attractive place to hang out, either, better to stay in the city safely in an hotel.

[This message has been edited by MrsDrD (edited 09-02-2003).]

[This message has been edited by MrsDrD (edited 09-02-2003).]

So the obvious conclusion from your post and mine is that the system is just too "coarse". Why shut HK Island down when it's a bit windy over Cheung Chau?

It's a bit like shutting Glasgow down because it's a bit windy over the Hebrides (sorry don't know the Australian equivalent).

If you live on an exposed island then you expect it to get windy sometimes and you design your lifestyle to accommodate it.

THe thing that seems to be missing in all of this is individual judgement depending on circumstances. Everybody just waits for someone in charge to tell them what to do.

However, I understand that the "nanny state" approach is well received in Australia as well, so I can see that it would appeal.

But heh - we're way off topic here - I guess this should be in AsiaXpat's Speakers' Corner, or Geoexpat's Sandbox.

From my perspective the word is PHEW...guess who was planning to fly HKG-MEL on the 2nd but had to defer until the 3rd because the flight on the 2nd was booked out! Someone up there likes me..

From my perspective (perch?) at the MO, this thing was a non-event. The MO has double windows and balcony doors (with about 5 inches of insulating cork as edge sealant between the two windows), plus heavy drapes, and I couldn't hear a thing. Now, if you opened the balcony door, it was the howling of the wolves outside.

Dinner at Vong was great, restaurant was 80% full. The big plate glass windows were uncovered, but they did mount rubber supports on them, looked more like decorations.

As the topic is Typhoon Dujuan and the effect on infrastrucuture including flights in HKG yesterday, I'll indulge myself to post once more on this topic.

Not meaning to be argumentative, here, christep, but the conclusion you draw is not obvious to me at all. I was merely stating that what may seem unnecessary to some is a consequence of complicated terrain in a very compact area.

I think it is a very different situation to the analogy of Glasgow and the Hebrides, which to my recollection are somewhere between 150 and 200km apart.

Cheng Chau is a scant 20km from Central, and is quoted as it is an official weather monitoring station. Similarly obviously CLK has official weather data published, and I happen to live between those two points.

As you know, many people (expats and "local") live on outer islands and commute to Central or TST for work, thus we are very much affected in a situation like yesterday, even when those who live and work on the northern side of HK island are seemingly less affected. Furthermore, a very large proportion of the population lives in the New Territories and commutes in to work. Sheltered conditions in the inner harbour don't change the fact that they may face real issues getting home in conditions like yesterday.

The warning system is designed to accomodate these simple commuting facts: most of the population do not live in the sheltered confines of inner Victoria Harbour. And to take into account such factors as that our major airport needed to shut down yesterday as it is in an exposed (albeit lower populated) area of Hong Kong. The warnings act to make people living or working in sheltered areas think twice before venturing too far.

I'm sure many individuals are free to remain in their offices if they wish, instead of heeding the T8 and going home (or heading to the movies), if they feel that they will not be affected. I think it is fortunate that a system is in place where employees have the right to leave without penalty if they judge it necessary, e.g. because their ferry/bus will not run much past a T8 signal, or flooding will start in their local areas. It is also invaluable for business and leisure travellers who are not aware of the nuances of the various districts in HKG and the effects of weather on them: they are best advised to heed the warnings.

The reverse situation also applies: sometimes we are "gifted" with "Black rain" warnings when here on Lantau it is barely raining, but Central and TST are flooding heavily etc. and vice versa - own judgement does come into play.

The judgement last night was that the winds were of the strength that they would cause problems: due to the prevailing direction airlines agreed and stopped operations after 6pm at CLK, even though they are free to operate in a T8 if they want, as they did at the end of July when the winds were both lesser at CLK and in the more agreeable direction for safe operation.

Not quite sure what you refer to with respect to Australia being a nanny state....but that is way off topic so I won't go there. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

FYI, I was enroute to HKG on CX839 and merely 2 hours away when I realised that we were descending towards TPE. The crew seems to be in a titzy as they were rushing about trying to clear meal trays etc. Then I realised that we were going to land in TPE due to a typhoon in HKG. "It's a biggie", one crew told me.

To cut a long story short (okay, maybe I'll post it on Trip Reports later), I'm now in HKG awaiting for my flight to BKK. I was to have stayed in HKG for the night but now I had already stayed at TPE. Not quite the same, but there you have it.

I must say that CX has been exemplary in their handling of a emergency situation when our flight was diverted to TPE. It helps when airlines such as CX have typhoon emergency measures all practiced and prepared for them and when things like this do happen... CX staff swing into action.