Royal - HKU Libraries - The University of Hong Kong

If the weather in 1965 was comparatively normal, thefollowing year's was totally abnormal. It began innocentlyenough until April 1966, which saw twice the averagerainfall. May was dry, but 12 June brought some of HongKong's heaviest rain: between 6.30 am and 7.30 am,Aberdeen had 157 mm, and in the 24 hours to noon on 12June, the Observatory recorded 401 mm. Floods andlandslides killed more than 60 people.The help warn against the possibility of such disasters, thethunderstorm and heavy rain service was started in 1967,following the installation of a new weather radar at Tate'sCairn.However, the intensity of weather can sometimestranscend even the most efficient warning system, as wastragically demonstrated in June 1972.The weather deteriorated rapidly in the middle of themonth, and became particularly bad on 15 June, the day ofthe Dragon Boat Festival.In the next three days, heavy rain and frequent thunderstorms,reminiscent of the heavy rainstorms in 1966, lashedHong Kong. The maximum hourly rainfall of nearly 99mm on 18 June was close to the record of 108 mm set in1966.For the first time in the recorded history of the RoyalObservatory, more than 200 mm of rain fell on each of threeconsecutive days. Thunderstorm and heavy rain warningswere issued and renewed almost continuously from 15-18June.The territory's notoriously unstable hillsides could notcope with the deluge, and on Sunday 18 June 1972, two ofthem gave way.About 1.10 pm, part of the embankment opposite theSau Mau Ping public housing estate in Kowloon suddenlycollapsed and 'slid down like a carpet* on to the huts below,engulfing the area in earth, mud and rock. Most of the hutswere buried or crushed.The final death toll was 71.80