Street sleeper escapes slide
FROM his exposed 'bed' under a Chai Wan pavilion, 67-year-old street sleeper Cheung Fu watched as tonnes of earth shuddered and crumbled, rushing towards him through the darkness early yesterday.
The landslide at Fei Tsui Road brought about 10,000 tonnes of earth crashing across the strip where the former factory worker once slept, burying 16-year-old Chow Wai-keung.
'There was a huge booming sound, like the crashing of thunder, and suddenly I saw the whole side of the slope start moving and come crashing down. I was almost petrified with fright,' Mr Cheung said.
He had been sleeping in a pavilion about 30 metres from the landslip site. The slope gave way, and sent mud and rock crashing as far as the Chai Wan Baptist Church, on the opposite side of the road.
'It had been raining very heavily and it was also windy. I was sleeping on my cot in the shelter of the pavilion when I heard the crashing sound,' Mr Cheung said.
He stared as tonnes of earth, rocks and plant debris slid down. 'I was numb for a short while and did not dare go up to the site, but, before I knew it, firemen arrived on the scene and started to work right away,' he said.
For 16 years Mr Cheung has slept in the same area, and for three years slept at the foot of the slope which collapsed. He said there had been a minor landslip on the same slope a few years ago.
Nearby resident Kenny Mar had been worried as he walked past the slope shortly before it gave way.
'About midnight, there was a lot of water gushing down and around the foot of the slope. There was so much water in fact, that I had to hold on to the guardrail to keep myself steady because the water came up to my knees, about two feet.
'I kept looking at the slope that collapsed and felt a foreboding because there was so much water everywhere,' Mr Mar said.
Nearby, a gas mains pipe was shut off to stop a leak, leaving 4,300 homes in Hing Wah Estate, Fung Wah Estate and nearby buildings temporarily without gas. About 900 homes were expected to have gas re-reconnected late last night.