Transcript of remarks of joint press conference on Super Typhoon Saola

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The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, held a joint press conference today (August 31) on the Government's work to cope with Super Typhoon Saola. The Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing-hing; the Acting Secretary for Security, Mr Michael Cheuk; the Director of Highways, Mr Jimmy Chan; the Director of Home Affairs, Mrs Alice Cheung; the Commissioner for Transport, Ms Angela Lee; the Director of Drainage Services, Ms Alice Pang; the Director of Buildings, Ms Clarice Yu; the Director of Hong Kong Observatory, Dr Chan Pak-wai; the Deputy Director of Fire Services (Operations) , Mr Wong Chun-yip; and the Head of Greening, Landscape and Tree Management Section of Development Bureau, Miss Kathy Ng, also attended. Following is the transcript of remarks of the press conference:

Reporter: As the Government has just mentioned that residents may not need to go back to work in case if there are some worst-case scenarios happening. So how would you define the “worst-case scenario” and what are the extreme situations that the Government will consider a work stoppage in the situations? And is there a high chance of issuing a Typhoon Signal No. 10 in the coming few days? The third question is, will there be a need to evacuate the people in the flood-prone areas such as Tai O and Lei Yue Mun, etc?

Chief Secretary for Administration: I think evacuation work is now in progress. Our staff has already started work. And then for extreme cases, it means that under the circumstances, members of public are not able to go back to their workplace due to whatever reason – very bad weather condition or very bad traffic condition. And I hope that under such a situation, the employer should be more accommodating to their staff because they need to ensure that their staff – their employees – are safe if they are required to work during the bad weather condition.

Director of the Hong Kong Observatory: About the Hurricane Signal no. 10, as I have just mentioned, the tropical cyclone will be closest to Hong Kong later on Friday and early on Saturday. In fact, in our weather forecast, we have already forecasted that hurricane force winds are possible over offshore waters and on high ground. If that really happens, then the issuance of typhoon Signal no. 10 is possible. But then all these still depend on whether the typhoon is really moving according to the forecast track and also its intensity change.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Thursday, August 31, 2023
Issued at HKT 21:55

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