Eric Chan defends Hong Kong’s ‘holistic’ mechanism for extreme weather amid criticism
No 2 official says predicting downpours is much more difficult than forecasting typhoons, following city’s first black rainstorm signal of year
Hong Kong’s No 2 official has defended the city’s “holistic and effective” mechanism for handling extreme weather after thousands of residents expressed frustration about getting caught in heavy rain during their morning commute.
Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki on Wednesday also addressed criticisms of the steering committee on handling extreme weather, which he chairs.
Some questioned why the committee failed to convene and make any “advance preparations” for the heavy rain that affected the city during the Tuesday morning rush hour, but Chan argued that predicting sudden downpours was much more difficult than forecasting typhoons.
“As the [Hong Kong] Observatory has explained, the rainstorm developed quickly and was concentrated in certain areas, making it difficult to form a clear prediction,” he told reporters after attending a closed-door meeting with lawmakers.
The weather forecaster issued a red rainstorm signal at 8.40am on Tuesday and soon escalated it to the highest-level warning at 9.10am. The black rainstorm warning, the first of the year so far, was in force for about two hours.
Many residents were caught in the deluge and were well on their way to work or had already reached the office by the time the alert was issued. Some areas of the city were hit with more than more than 100mm (3.9 inches) of rainfall in an hour.