Typhoon Wipha batters Hong Kong sunflower farm, leaving owner with losses

A huge farm in northern Hong Kong was submerged in around three hours during Typhoon Wipha, causing about 70,000 sunflowers to wilt and leaving a 73-year-old farmer with six-figure losses.

Leung Yat-shun, a farmer at Shun Sum Yuen farm in San Tin, said on Saturday that he and three colleagues had spent about 10 weeks to grow tens of thousands of sunflowers to shoulder height, but their efforts were in vain within hours of Typhoon Wipha hitting the city last weekend.

“During the typhoon, the flood rose rapidly, reaching chest level in around three hours. The water was so rapid that I could not enter the farms and could only watch [the sunflowers flood],” he said.

Leung said the farm had suffered six-figure Hong Kong dollar losses, but it was difficult to calculate the exact amount.

The flower farm, near the border with mainland China, makes a large part of Leung’s income by charging visitors a fee of HK$50 (US$6.40) to enter and take pictures.

But with no natural rivers around the place, the area is marked as a medium flooding black spot by authorities.

With the typhoon bringing more than 70mm (2.8 inches) of rainfall at its peak amid the black rain signal and No 10 hurricane warning, both the highest in their categories, the flood brought damage that Leung said he had not seen in years.