Hong-Kong / Typhoon "Wanda" / 1st September 1962
Sure, it is true that it had been an extraordinary experience.
You deal with it in your own way and it gradually seemed to fade into the
background and slowly it is only a distant memory. Moreover, you lose touch
with those colleagues who went through this with you however more pressing
things demand your attention.
It was dramatic but you gradually shelve this in your memory bank, somewhere.
Nowadays with the Internet at your disposal, those experiences can be shared
again.
And so it was by a fluke, that information regarding Wanda came into focus
again by stumbling across the Blue Funnel Experience website.
Over forty years have passed since those extraordinary days and yet the HK
observatory has had those facts and figures all there for everyone to see.
Stumbling across those typhoon reports does make some daunting reading. The
former Colony reports are going back to the late 19th century and the information
accumulated does make compelling reading.
On average three to four typhoons crash into the Chinese main land from across the Pacific each year. August and September months seem to be the predominant months for this happening. This typhoon came in during the morning and left mid afternoon.
So was typhoon Wanda really so special or was it just like all the others?
A comparison table produced by the Observatory does begin to throw some light
on this matter and this still stands today, I quote -
" The table indicates that "WANDA" was one of the most severe
typhoons experienced in Hong Kong. The lowest pressure 953.2 MB. was a record
low value (I recorded 952, so what's 1 mb. between friends?) and the maximum
gust the highest recorded on the Observatory since 1911 / 140 knots!"
On September 1, 203 mm (7.99 inches) of rainfall was recorded.
Just imagine that dropping into your back garden.
So was typhoon "WANDA" really so unique?
Quote: "The atmospheric pressure near the centre of "WANDA" was sufficiently low to cause a static increase in sea level of about 1.5 ft. This would take the form of a dome of water possibly about some 100 miles across. As this dome moves into the shallower waters near the coast it would be slowed down and its height would increase. Tide heights in the more open waters at North Point at the time were already 2 and 3 ft. above the predicted level".
Combination of circumstances:
The big impact of "WANDA" was a unique coming together of the already
to be expected high tide, hurricane winds sweeping the water in between the
inlets and preventing the water from leaving and - last but not least - the
"Dome" effect.
A thirty-foot tidal wave was monitored at Tolo Harbour, creating its own Tsunami.
Wanda's record speaks for itself -
Killed 130 people and 53 were missing.
27.000 people became homeless overnight.
Of some 20.000 floating small craft, 725 were wrecked.
Of some 130 sea-going vessels, 24 were beached and 12 involved in a collision.
A few ships sunk and livestock losses were severe in some places.
I do recall some dead livestock floating past much later that afternoon and wondered what on earth had happened. At least the records bring their own explanations.
Only one other typhoon stands out in the records, the one of September 1937. This one came in the middle of the night and the warning system in the New Territories was still in its infancy. Thousands of people perished that night.
Simply type in "Typhoon Wanda" on the Google search engine and it's all there in your face, pages of it - that's not ordinary.
Typhoon "WANDA" definitely has gone down in Hong Kong history as one of the worst, if not the worst in the 1900's. An adequate warning system was in place and the typhoon came and went during daytime.
Was this a frightening experience?
Looking back I can honestly say that fear was not an issue.
You are far too busy to let your mind wonder, as you have to be totally pre-occupied
with so many things all at the same time.
The awareness of danger did not enter your head, you simply tried to hold
on the things you knew and totally believed in.
The lack of any form of experience may have something to do with that.
Looking at the naked facts today, you realise you should have been scared.
But we didn't know the facts, not all of them anyway.