Second Super Typhoon Mangkhut Hitting Macau in 13 months
And it has changed the way Macau people treat any typhoons
Making History For A Small City
Macau is a small city — near Hong Kong along the coast in China — famous for its casinos and gambling industries. Yesterday it was the first time in history Macau had to shut down all the casinos due to a typhoon. And more importantly, people in Macau like myself were truly feeling the power of mother nature.
Traditionally in Macau, we used to love having typhoons so we could get extra paid time off. Kids were also happy to see typhoons because they didn’t have to go to school. It was definitely not a politically correct concept. The reason we had this idea was, we used to have only minor damages during typhoon seasons.
No casualties, no power or water outage were caused by typhoons — that is until last summer.
Getting Hit Before Even Knowing It
Last August, we were hit by Typhoon Hato, which was the strongest typhoon we had in 53 years. The result was devastating and the fallout lasted for weeks.
Many areas in the city were out of power and water for more than a week. And people were lining up at supermarkets to buy food for their families. Part of the destruction was caused by the strength of the typhoon itself.
But mostly, it was caused by the lack of preparation on our part. Not only the city infrastructure was not prepared to handle typhoons of this level of strength, but also we were not paying much attention to Hato until all the damages were done.
Getting Prepared For The Uncertain
About a week ago, the weather forecast issued an early warning. We were going to be hit by another super typhoon — Mangkhut, which was expected to be even stronger than Hato. With all the hard lessons learned from last year, people started to stock up supplies right away.
In addition to food and water, duct tape was the first to be sold out. Because people were worried their apartments would be left without windows again. Duct tape became the essential tool for securing the windows.
Most people in Macau live in high-rise apartments rather than standalone houses, so windows can be smashed by the gusty winds of a typhoon. Last year, many apartment windows were damaged after Hato.
People had to use wooden boards or even plastic bags to cover their broken windows for weeks, while waiting for the replacements. Because the window factories just cannot manufacture quickly enough to fill up the great number of orders.
Waiting Is Always The Hardest Part
Started from yesterday morning, Mangkhut was getting close to Macau. With all the necessary preparations done, I found myself still unsettling while waiting for the typhoon to pass.
Every time the windows were making a sound by the sudden gust of wind, I couldn’t stop myself going back and forth checking out if all the windows were secured.
And whenever the lights were flashing, I would worry what would happen if the power grids could not hold this time. Because images of the power outage from last year were still fresh in my mind.
Finally the wait was over. Mangkhut took about four hours to pass Macau, but it already felt like a lifetime.
Typhoons Will Never Be The Same
We were fortunate Mangkhut was not as strong as we had expected. Adding to the efforts city officials had put in for reinforcing the necessary infrastructure, power and water outage only occurred in a few areas of the city yesterday.
But still, after the past 13 months, we will no longer underestimate the impact of any typhoons. And all the superstorms in other parts of the world like Florida or Philippines don’t seem that far anymore. Because we now understand no place on Earth can be immune from the impact of climate change.
Will we get another super typhoon next summer in Macau? I hope not. But looking at the weather patterns around the world right now, I won’t be surprised seeing more and stronger typhoons hitting us in the foreseeable future.
The only thing we can do is to get ourselves fully prepared when any typhoon comes. Some people might say no preparation will ever be enough against the power of nature. But at least from what we have seen firsthand, preparation does save lives and minimize damages.
