The Diary
of
Anne Ku

4 November 2000 Saturday

STORMY WEATHER

I heard on the radio that fallen leaves had short-circuited the power system, halting large parts of the London Underground. Reputed to be the worst storm this decade (the last one being the infamous October 1987 hurricane that coincided with the stock market crash), it's expected to get worse before getting better.

The infrastructure in this country needs maintenance badly. Such extremes in weather are become the norm rather than the exception, one politician said.

The first Singapore Airline crash since its inception in 1972, a new 747 split in two shortly after takeoff in Chiang Kai-shek airport, Taiwan. It's the typhoon season - the combination of strong gusts of wind and the plane hitting an "object" was reported. Ironically, I had flown into London Heathrow on a Singapore Airline flight the morning of the October 1987 hurricane. We were one of the first flights to land.

Typhoons, I imagine, are much stronger than the storms we're experiencing here in England. I grew up with typhoons. It was a yearly phenomenon. Everyone was expected to stay indoors. For the lack of a better name, these "storms" in England have caused flooding and chaos, crippling the country. Yet people expect to lead normal lives, going to work, travelling their usual routes. I chose to stay at home and conserve my energy. Perhaps it's nature's way of warning us not to take anything for granted anymore.

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