Deadly Typhoon Hato hit Macau on Wednesday lashing the city with wind and rain that left piles of rubbish and uprooted trees all over the city as visibly shocked residents complained that the authorities had failed to warn them in time about the gravity of the approaching menace and therefore did not give them enough time to prepare for the onslaught.
It was the first time since 1999 that Macau hoisted the No. 10 signal, the highest typhoon warning signal, officials said, adding that Hato was the strongest typhoon to hammer the city since 1964.
Residents yesterday queued to collect water from fire hydrants while restaurant and shop owners and their staff were still busy cleaning up.
“I have never seen the aftermath of a typhoon as serious as this one before,” a grocery shop owner in Rua das Estalagens told The Macau Post Daily yesterday, adding the flood waters had reached a height of over 1.65 meters in his neighbourhood.
A construction material shop owner, surnamed Kou, criticised the government for not warning residents about the severity of the typhoon in time, adding her shop Shocked residence struggle with typhoon aftermathsuffered a financial loss of about 600,000 patacas.
“[The government] should remind residents [in time about the dangers of an approaching typhoon]! [If the government] had told us earlier that would be a storm surge may happen, we could have prepared in advance,” Chan said with tears in her eyes.
Speaking to The Macau Post Daily while having lunch outside her shop, Kou pointed out that she had no water to prepare her own meals for the family, adding that it was also very difficult to find any restaurants which were open. Kou said the two lunch boxes she bought in a restaurant in Pantene district cost her 100 and 130 patacas respectively.
Normally, a lunch box costs between 20 and 40 patacas.
“We had no other options but to buy them [the lunch boxes],” Kou said helplessly.
A local resident, surnamed Chan, told The Macau Post Daily that she had no electricity, tap water or network connections since Wednesday noon. In order to feed her baby, she went to stay with a family member in Patane district.
Chan said that after arriving there she discovered that the flat didn’t have electricity and tap water supplies either, so she and her baby were going to stay with a friend of hers in Taipa whose flat’s power and water supply was already back to normal.
“The typhoon this time was extremely strong,” Chan said.
Meanwhile, The Macau Post Daily saw a group of young people cleaning up Avenida de Horta e Costa yesterday.
Hui Chi Kei, a staff member of the Lazarus Youth Centre, said: “Frontline rescue teams were exhausted. Staying at home and watching the news on TV can’t help,” she said, adding that her centre had therefore decided to recruit volunteers to help clean up various areas of the city.
According to Hui, about 20 young people joined the post-typhoon cleanup. She said they started from the group’s headquarters near Avenida de Venceslau de Morais yesterday morning.
A construction material shop owner, surnamed Kou (right), and a family member have an expensive post-typhoon lunch box meal yesterday at the shop in Patane district.
A local resident, surnamed Chan, carrying her baby, poses yesterday in Patane district before going to a friend’s flat in Taipa with functioning power and tap water supplies. Photos: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
