Does this happen often?

It's 3pm and I am at home on a Friday afternoon.

At lunchtime I was in the office and everything was normal. We had two new members of the organization having an early meeting with my boss (they don't officially start work till Monday) and I was chatting to them too.

My boss left and went to lunch, so I was left to talk to the newbies. About 10 minutes later she burst back into the room and announced "You all have to go home right now, there is a typhoon coming".

So that was that, we had barely enough time to turn off our computers and were told that we had about an hour before the typhoon hits level 8. The highest typhoon classification.
Here are some choice sectons from the official governent weather observatory.

""TROPICAL CYCLONE BULLETIN HERE IS THE LATEST TROPICAL CYCLONE WARNING ISSUED BY THE HONG KONG OBSERVATORY. THE NO. 8 SOUTHWEST GALE OR STORM SIGNAL IS IN FORCE.THIS MEANS THAT WINDS WITH MEAN SPEEDS OF 63 KILOMETRES PERHOUR OR MORE ARE EXPECTED FROM THE SOUTHWEST QUARTER.AT 3 P.M.,

PRECAUTIONARY ANNOUNCEMENTS WITH NO. 8 SIGNAL)

(1) COMPLETE ALL PRECAUTIONS IN YOUR HOME. LOCK ALL WINDOWSAND DOORS, FIT BARS INTO POSITION AND INSERT REINFORCEDSHUTTERS AND GATES IF THEY ARE AVAILABLE. ADHESIVE TAPEFIXED TO LARGE WINDOW-PANES IN EXPOSED POSITIONS WILLREDUCE DAMAGE BY BROKEN GLASS. STORM WATER DRAINS SHOULD BE CLEARED OF LEAVES AND RUBBISH.

(3) DO NOT STAND NEAR WINDOWS ON THE EXPOSED SIDE OF YOURHOME. MOVE ALL FURNITURE AND VALUABLES AWAY FROM THESE AREAS. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SAFE PLACE TO SHELTER, SHOULDWINDOWS BE BROKEN.""

On the rushed way out of the office, one of the new members of the organization asked "Does this happen often?" The answer is no, this is my first level 8 typhoon. But it happens occasionally with rain warning instead.

I tell you what though, when my boss told them to go back to the hostel and prepare to maybe stay indoors for more than 24 hours, I bet they wondered what the hell they have got themselves into!!!

bx