Hong Kong wakes to chaos in urban areas as downpour under black rainstorm warning sparks flooding, landslides
- Downpour brings city to standstill with reports of roads sinking, drivers being stranded in vehicles and a mall restaurant becoming submerged
- Urban areas hard hit; authorities receive at least 39 reports of landslides
Residents in urban areas woke to serious flooding and damage caused by torrential rain under the first black rainstorm warning in almost two years on Friday, with most reported landslides hitting Hong Kong Island.
The downpour brought the city to a standstill in the morning as roads subsided, drivers were left stranded in cars, restaurants flooded and landslides struck near residential estates.
Images of people turning plastic road dividers into makeshift rafts or stranded on car roofs were circulated on the internet.
The black rainstorm alert issued at 11.05pm on Thursday lasted for more than 16 hours, breaking the city’s records for the longest signal of its kind and for the largest amount of rainfall recorded in one hour. The Observatory headquarters logged 158.1mm (6.2 inches) of rain between 11pm and midnight on Thursday, the highest since records began in 1884.
In Wong Tai Sin, not a usual flooding black spot, the Post observed that muddy water had almost covered the entire lower ground floor of Temple Mall North.