It's midday on August 21 here in Hong Kong, and we're under what's known as a "T1" warning -- that's T as in typhoon.
A typhoon is a tropical cyclone, which when it makes landfall brings heavy rain and high winds. We're in the middle of typhoon season, which is much like hurricane season in the US, only with more frequent storms. A typhoon blew through Hong Kong on August 6, but since then we've been blessed with what I'm told is uncharacteristically dry and benign weather. Well, that may be about to end. The first of the rain is supposed to move in later today, and I imagine the Olympic equestrian photographers and broadcasters are busy wrapping their camera gear in plastic bags and getting out their raincoats and wellies for tonight's final equestrian competition, the individual jumping final and subsequent medals ceremony. But the show will go on, according to a news bulletin that popped up on my HK cell phone a short time ago.
Tomorrow and Saturday (Aug. 22 and 23) are contingency days built into the competition schedule, but evidently the organizers don't think they'll need to postpone the competition after all. And we know from the earlier typhoon that German footing expert Oliver Hoberg's handiwork in the main competition arena will stand up to anything Mother Nature dishes out. Actually, the brunt of Typhoon Nuri may come tomorrow, which is good news if you're a rider or a spectator but not so good if you are holding flight reservations for that date, as it happens that I am.
My hope is that Nuri's worst blows through before my scheduled late-evening departure. Let me amend that to say that I hope that (a) Nuri goes elsewhere entirely, and, failing that, that (b) she's short and lacking in punch so as to disturb the fewest departures possible. For I'm not the only one scheduled to leave tomorrow: a number of the dressage horses, including individual silver medalist Satchmo of Germany, are scheduled to ship out then, not to mention the flood of media representatives, team members, officials, and others who will be trying to get out of Dodge this weekend. Safe and uneventful travels to all.
