Vicente

Last night we had an unexpected visitor named Vicente. Vicente was a tropical storm that was hovering out at sea and it was predicted to make land fall well west of Hong Kong. The weather forecast was for some squally showers and a bit of wind, not nice, but not bad. Vicente has other plans though, and it decided to prove that Mother Nature is unpredictable. It hovered out at sea for a while, gathering strength, then changing course and visiting Hong Kong for a spell. Maybe it had a craving for Dim Sum or Egg Tarts, I don't know but by 6pm a Signal 8 was issued and it was getting noisy, but we were comfy and dry in our flat so we watched a movie. Next thing we knew it was a Signal 9 and the winds were loud and the rain was heavy. Then sometime around midnight - 1am a Signal 10 was issued. Signal 10 is the highest and is rarely issued. In the past 65 years there has only been 13 Signal 10's issued, the last in 1999! A Signal 10 means you are in for it. And boy where we! Vicente had now been upgraded from a tropical storm to a Severe Typhoon (aka, Severe Hurricane). The winds were howling and the windows rattling. They were also leaking profusely by this time. Buckets and towels were deployed and just when we thought we found all the leaks, we found a few more. Mr. Grey Cat tried to patch a few spots with Sugru, but it didn't do much. It was just too wet and the wind just forced water through every gap it could. And so started our night, we would try to sleep for a bit then one of us would get up, empty buckets and change towels, throwing the wet ones in the dryer, only to do it all over again. I was wondering to myself why we didn't change the windows when we renovated the flat. Not that it is a guarantee against leaks, but I am sure there would have been less. Interestingly we did not loose power or internet so I did manage a very late night Skype chat with a friend in New Jersey! Finally at about 5 am the winds lessened and we fell asleep. I awoke grateful that the only clean up I have to do is a few loads of laundry and that most importantly everyone I care about is safe. 

Sugru, the silicone wonder! 

Towel in deployment. 

This is where most of the leaks were. Not the window that you see, but the
 ones just above it out of the frame.
They are above the bay and so were dripping onto the window seat.
 But even if we hadn't emptied the buckets a few times we still
 would have been fine. 

More towels. 

While my windows leaked, I am grateful they did not break, unlike these
unfortunate people.
 Looking down from my flat I could see
that we were not the only ones with leaks, many people had towels and
 buckets in their windows.