Lai See | Observatory blows it again with late lifting of No 8 signal

Yet again we must take the Observatory to task for its dilatoriness in lowering the No 8 signal yesterday.

It had been obvious for some hours that Usagi, the "world's worst typhoon this year", was not going "to slam" into Hong Kong as previously thought. Last month the Observatory also lowered the No 8 signal needlessly late in the day in the wake of Typhoon Utor.

Yesterday the signal could easily have been lowered at 7am, or possibly earlier, allowing everyone to go to work as normal. Looking at the wind speeds on the Observatory's website, at the different locations around the territory for 7am, the wind was at most 20 kilometres an hour, with exceptions such as Green Island, where it was 40 kilometres an hour and Ngong Ping, 50 kilometres an hour. In some cases, the wind was stronger later in the day after the storm signals had been lowered. Indeed the No 8 was lowered at just before 9.30 am, and then all signals were lowered at 10.25am, which is a rapid deceleration.

This over-caution does nobody any good and reminds us of the Aesop's fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf. There is a danger that the Observatory's caution will lull people into a false sense of security, until we all get caught out by a big one that really does some damage and is a threat to life.

As we have said before, there is no need for the city to come to a grinding halt because of 100km/h winds. We should do what everyone else does, and get on with everyday activities as best we can.