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Hong Kong and Southern China is getting ready to absorb their third Typhoon in three weeks. They just take a day off work and then dust off and get back to work

Hong Kong and Southern China is getting ready to absorb their third Typhoon in three weeks. They just take a day off work and then dust off and get back to work the next day.

foobarchu 9y ago
It's not about the typhoon/hurricane, it's about the rainfall and flooding. If you look at rainfall amounts from similar typhoons, they all ended up causing billions of dollars of destruction, and in older cases hundreds of casualties. This would cause just as many issues in south china as it is in Houston, especially when you consider that fast-paced Chinese building patterns are probably even worse about covering up natural drainage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_tropical_cyclone_rainfall_climatology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_tropical_cyclone_rainfal... I will concede that pacific typhoons have much higher record rainfall amounts, but 50in peak accumulation is by no means 'normal' for them either.
MR4D 9y ago
Hong Kong isn't flat. Water drains easily into the sea. Houston is __FLAT__ water doesn't drain nearly as well. I live in Houston. There are many problems to solve here, but your comparison is not relevant. Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Hong_Kong https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Hong_Kong
- bobjordan 9y ago
  It may be more comparable if you refer to your geography a few miles inland from the islands of Hong Kong to the city of Shenzhen and indeed the 20+ million people living in the Pearl River Delta. This is the totality of the area that I referenced. It's a delta and port, flat all around, just like Houston. Further, I also own a home in Houston, so I'm in full command of the comparison. There are plenty of things that Houston can learn from this area about infrastructure and flood control.
  - MR4D 9y ago
    Thanks for the clarification - I'll have to check it out.

Hong Kong and Southern China is getting ready to absorb their third Typhoon in three weeks. They just take a day off work and then dust off and get back to work the next day.

foobarchu 9y ago

It's not about the typhoon/hurricane, it's about the rainfall and flooding. If you look at rainfall amounts from similar typhoons, they all ended up causing billions of dollars of destruction, and in older cases hundreds of casualties. This would cause just as many issues in south china as it is in Houston, especially when you consider that fast-paced Chinese building patterns are probably even worse about covering up natural drainage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_tropical_cyclone_rainfall_climatology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_tropical_cyclone_rainfal... I will concede that pacific typhoons have much higher record rainfall amounts, but 50in peak accumulation is by no means 'normal' for them either.

MR4D 9y ago

Hong Kong isn't flat. Water drains easily into the sea. Houston is __FLAT__ water doesn't drain nearly as well. I live in Houston. There are many problems to solve here, but your comparison is not relevant. Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Hong_Kong https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Hong_Kong

bobjordan 9y ago
It may be more comparable if you refer to your geography a few miles inland from the islands of Hong Kong to the city of Shenzhen and indeed the 20+ million people living in the Pearl River Delta. This is the totality of the area that I referenced. It's a delta and port, flat all around, just like Houston. Further, I also own a home in Houston, so I'm in full command of the comparison. There are plenty of things that Houston can learn from this area about infrastructure and flood control.
- MR4D 9y ago
  Thanks for the clarification - I'll have to check it out.