Lowest barometer reading 29inch = 969 mbar, corresponding to a wind speed of about 170km/h.
Maximum impact at night (from Saturday to Sunday)
Destruction report:
From Pedder's Wharf westward for several hundred yards the Praya is demolished.
Reports about the damage caused by a typhoon usually only compile facts – how many ships, houses, piers etc. were damaged or even destroyed, and the number of human casualties and deaths. I couldn’t find reports earlier than 1874.
The similarity of the typhoon that affected Hong Kong in 1937 to 'Wanda' in 1962 has been referred to in other publications. It may be of interest, however, to compare 'Wanda' with the first recorded typhoon to visit the Colony in July, 1841. Apparently the month of July in 1841 set in with ominous weather, as the following extract from 'The Opium Clippers' by Basil LUBBOCK indicates:
There were over 5,300 reports of fallen trees, many incidents of falling objects, one report of landslide as well as a number of flooding reports. Two police officers were hit on the head by falling branches near San Po Kong when clearing the fallen trees. One person was injured by a falling clothes-hanging pole in Kwun Tong. A suspended work platform at an apartment block in Hung Hom came loose under strong winds and rammed into the windows of several units of the building. Glass curtain walls of several commercial buildings in Wan Chai and Central were shattered.
Max. windspeed: 220 km/h (140 mph)
Deaths: 110, among these 88 people on the sunken ferry boat SS Fat Shan.
Rainfall on August 17: 288.1 mm
The daily total rainfall of 288.1 mm on August 17 is the highest value ever recorded in one calendar day in August in Hong Kong.(source)
Notes from HK Observatory:
Typhoon Gloria in September moved first to the west-northwest, and then turned northward to cross the coast close to the west of Macau. The Royal Observatory recorded twelve hours of strong winds, fourteen hours of gales, and one hour when winds were mainly hurricane strength with a gust of 101 knots. At Waglan, winds of gale force or higher lasted twenty-one hours with a peak gust of 100 knots.
Hi my parents were in HK in the mid 50s and my sibling has a vague memory that they, or my mother particularly, may have received an award for helping out in her local area during a typhoon. It is an imperfect memory and we could not find anything among their effects, later, that corroborated the memory. Does anyone know where I might find any info about such things?
41. The following is a copy of the report on the damaging typhoon which occurred on the night of November 9th-10th :
Report on the damages to Government property and buildings due to the Typhoon which passed over Hongkong on the night of the 9th and morning of the 10th November 1900
David, would it be possible to create a gallery for photos taken in the aftermath of the various Hong Kong typhoons in consecutive date order? I uploaded one of the damage to the Bungalow at 19 Broadwood Road where my family lived, but it took me a while to verify that the date was 1930.
In one of Martyn Gregory's old photo albums a couple of photos show the destruction of this powerful typhoon, and a folded, yellowed slip of newspaper describes the event. All are reproduced here with Martyn's kind permission.
The first photo shows several sunken ships and the ruined piers and sea-wall between Central and Sheung Wan. The large building on the right in the distance is the City Hall.
