Special Report – Hato’s “ghost” – 5 years on

By
João Paulo Meneses

Macau Business | August 2022 | Special Report | Hato’s “ghost” – 5 years on

Why the ghost lives

Last April, the Transport Bureau suspended its Ferreira Amaral Square bus station improvement project – which planned to reroute some buses below street level using the underground motorcycle parking facility – after the severe flooding recorded in June of last year.

A few months earlier, it was announced that preliminary design work for the East Line of the LRT will factor in the probability of future flooding on a time scale of 200 years.

The truth is that Macau has never been the same since 23 August 2017.

Events surrounding the landfall of super typhoon Hato, which became known as the “Hato incident”, had multiple repercussions on a wide variety of fronts: 12 fatalities and over 200 injuries were recorded, along with massive infrastructure damage, supply shortages and flash flooding, making Hato the deadliest typhoon to strike Macau in 53 years.

Five years on, we’re discussing some of the underlying problems, and what has been and remains to be done about them, in this special report.

Key voices addressing these issues include Secretary Rosário.”It is almost impossible” to prevent flooding in the city, because “Macau is a very low-lying region, our soil cannot absorb water and we still have a problem with water overflow,” he said in a statement from 2020.

Earlier, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak had assured us: “Right now, we are able to face a typhoon with the same intensity as Hato.”

Co-ordinated by João Paulo Meneses

[email protected]

Reliving August 23rd

The infamy of that day in Macau is persistent and far-reaching. So much so that at one point two years ago, then lawmaker Sulu Sou suggested the observance of August 23 as the Day for the Prevention of Disasters and the installation of an interpretive plaque at the Inner Harbour. No such proposals have (yet?) been accepted, but neither has the memory of that day begun to fade.

Five years not enough

No seawalls, no tidal gate. Not much has changed in the Inner Harbour since 2017

Lessons from science: peak wind intensity, maximum sea level and extreme high temperature

According to the SMG’s analysis of the super typhoon after the event, “Hato had exhibited rapid intensification before it made landfall. This phenomenon was caused by a combination of several meteorological conditions at the time. Some of them include the high sea-surface temperature region in the northern part of the South China Sea, the inverted trough accompanied by the increase of wind speed in the upper atmosphere, and the relatively low vertical wind shear in the northern part of the South China Sea.”

Lessons learned

About a year after Hato, Typhoon Mangkhut hit Macau hard. This time, however, a study revealed an improvement in the authorities’ disaster response and management perceived by 88 per cent of respondents

“The future frequency and magnitude of storms that influence the GBA region will be increasing”

Hato also had a profound impact on the academic community, which studied the phenomenon in detail and created national and international networks to help anticipate similar phenomena.

PTSD in the aftermath

Two different studies, carried out one year apart, establish the existence of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mangkhut, the following year

The affected area by Super Typhoon Mangkhut was several times that of Hato

More mangroves to protect the coast

A Macau-based study proves that wave reduction is influenced by mangrove density

“Tourism destinations face risks if they are struck by extreme weather events”

… and virtually no other jurisdiction in the world is as exposed to dependence on the tourism industry as Macau, says Fitch Ratings

IMF links Macau’s future to climate change for the first time

IMF links Macau’s future to climate change for the first time