Starting on March 29th Hong Kong started to have terrible weather again with massive rainstorms along with high winds. But things turned for worst on the night of the 30th when a really big rainstorm, plus hail the size golf balls, started to terrorize the country. Luckily there were no major casualties but some MTR stations flooded and high class malls had their glass roofs broken by hail.
My roommate and I were actually out that day until 7pm, and if we were out later by a minute we would have been caught in the rain and hail. The rain was really bad to the point where we couldn’t see the normal apartment buildings on a normal night.
(On a nice night)
(The night of the storm. You cannot even tell there are buildings beyond the lamp posts)
One of the high class malls hat had their roofs broken along with a major MTR station that flooded is actually near HKBU. The mall that received the most damage was Festival Walk, a seven floor mall (though after this incident people have nicknamed the mall Festival Falls) and connected to the mall is the Kowloon Tong MTR station that serves two major subway lines. My roommate goes in and out of the Kowloon Tong MTR station daily, and we were actually there the before the station flooded. It’s crazy how lucky we were able to avoid the mess that occurred later that night. I asked some of the local students on my floor if this was a normal occurrence and they said Hong Kong does have hail, but not the size of golf balls, so this rainstorm was out of the ordinary.
The video is of Festival Walk during the storm
I also texted my cousins that night and they said V City, a high class mall in Tuen Mun (New Territories) also had some windows broken along with some flooding inside the Tuen Mun MTR Station, but nothing as crazy as Festival Walk and Kowloon Tong.
The amazing thing was that the following day, the Kowloon Tong MTR Station was drained and everything was operating as if nothing had happened. Trains operated slower than usual but it’s pretty amazing at how fast the MTR system recovered. I didn’t visit Festival Walk the day after the storm, but it also operated as if nothing happened. Yesterday (April 9th) my roommate and I visited the mall to get tickets for Captain American (WOOT) and there is still visible damage to the mall a week and a half after the storm.
(About 1/3 of the malls escalators are still out of order)
From what I have been told from the friends I have made here and from my cousins, Hong Kong has experienced the coldest winter this year along with a major hail storm since 30 years ago. But, the weather has cleared up since the end of last week! The sun is beginning to shine again with the temperatures in the mid 70’s!