On Friday, Hong Kong faced one of the most severe flooding due to the heaviest rainfall of nearly 140 years. Streets and some subway stations of the city drowned in water. Schools were shut down as an emergency measure.
The heavy rainfall started on Thursday. According to the weather observatory, 158.1 millimetres of hourly rainfall occurred – the highest since 1884. Authorities issued flash flood warnings and emergency services conducted rescue operations.
Torrential rain deluged Hong Kong leading to widespread flooding across the densely packed city, submerging streets, shopping malls and metro stations https://t.co/FggsMg0S8V pic.twitter.com/xfNU3MowdZ
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 8, 2023
All trading sessions were cancelled on Friday by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. The government has updated that extreme conditions will last until at least 6 p.m. local time. Hospital Authority reported that over 80 citizens were admitted to emergency rooms.
The weather observatory reported that this torrential rain occurred due to a “trough of low pressure”.
Hong Kong was hit by widespread flooding on Friday as record-breaking rain paralysed the city. The Observatory recorded the highest one-hour rainfall since records began in 1884. Full story: https://t.co/xgbtoreVGt pic.twitter.com/ag0wuo65Rc
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) September 8, 2023