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crossed into Hong Kong, followed by some 500 000 thefollowing year, when the Japanese captured Canton.Along with the first wave of refugees came the mostdestructive natural disaster in Hong Kong's recorded history- the typhoon of 2 September 1937.Estimates of the final toll from the typhoon range up to11 000 dead* - and that in a territory which had beenwarned well in advance that the typhoon was approaching,the Standby signal, No. 1, having been hoisted 26 hoursbefore the first gales arrived.Newspapers of the time were naturally preoccupied withthe fighting in China and the Civil War in Spain, but theSouth China Morning Post of 3 September 1937 carried fourpages of typhoon reports and photographs, including thebizarre picture of a sampan which had been whisked intoDes Voeux Road West.Under the headline, 'Hong Kong's Worst Typhoon', thePost reported:Hong Kong is recovering again from another typhoon. Theswift moving cyclone which formed east of Manila a few daysago lashed the colony from midnight Wednesday until afterdawn yesterday. Irresistible gusts continuously swept the streets,smashed plate glass windows, tore heavy signboards adrift,ripped and overturned parked motor cars and shifted everythingmoveable.The Observatory states it was the fiercest typhoon yetexperienced in Hong Kong. At 125 miles per hour the windinstruments at the Observatory ceased attempting seriousregister. The barometer dropped to the low record of 28.298.Huge waves surged over the Pray a, reaching almost to Queen'sRoad .. . Among the many ships in harbour were some laid upbecause of the war, or under repair at docks and without steam.A score of these broke loose from their doubled moorings andcareered drunkenly about the harbour in macabre dance.*By comparison, the battle for Hong Kong, 8-25 December 1941, sawsome 2 250 Allied servicemen killed, and an estimated 4 500 or moreJapanese deaths, plus unknown - but significant - civilian casualties.62