Hong Kong back in full swing after Typhoon Wipha as businesses assess damage

Hong Kong was back in full swing on Monday despite some heavy rain, with the airport clearing about 1,000 storm-delayed flights and businesses assessing the economic damage after Typhoon Wipha triggered the first No 10 signal in two years over the weekend.

The Hong Kong Observatory warned that showers and squally thunderstorms would continue to affect the city over the next few days under the influence of the outer rainbands of Wipha, which had weakened into a tropical depression.

Wipha was the fifth typhoon to trigger the highest-level No 10 signal in the past two decades. However, the maximum average wind speed near its centre, 140km/h, was among the lowest recorded.

“While Wipha, as a typhoon, was not as strong as Saola in 2023, which became a super typhoon when it came close to Hong Kong, the strength of their periphery winds was in fact similar,” Observatory senior scientific officer Lee Shuk-ming said.

Economists estimated that the city could have suffered economic losses of as much as HK$2 billion (US$255 million) on Sunday alone based on gross domestic product statistics.

  

​Read More