my first signal 8 typhoon

On Friday, we were hit by a signal 8 tyhoon warning, which is officially described as "gale or storm force wind blowing in Hong Kong near sea level, with a sustained wind speed of 63-117 km/h and gusts which may exceed 180 km/h." The highest signal is 10, when it becomes hurricane force winds. It didn't seem so bad though last night, cuz I've heard the winds howl louder last year during a signal 3.

Larry and I were supposed to join some friends on a boat trip, but after waking up to heavy rain and gusty winds and a signal 1 typhoon warning, we got really worried about getting seasick being out on a boat for 7 hrs. So unfortunately, we had to cancel even though the rest of the guys braved it out there. It's a good thing I didn't go though because over the next few hrs, the winds got much stronger, signals 3 and then 8 was issued, and for sure I would've been puking off the side of the boat. =(

In the evening we stayed in and watched a dvd of "World Trade Center". Brought back lots of sad memories from Sept. 11th. Thought it was interesting to see the movie from the point-of-view of the first-response rescuers, in this case the Port Authority police officers. You could really get a sense of the lack of information/communication that the officers were experiencing that day. Even as the officers were in Tower One's concourse level ready to go upstairs to rescue people, they had no idea that Tower Two had been hit already. Amazingly, it was the true story of two of only a handful of people who were rescued alive after the collapse.