The 50th anniversary of the 1972 Hong Kong rainstorm disasters

^{The scene of the Kotewall Road landslide disaster in 1972}

Saturday 18 June 2022 is the 50th Anniversary of the 1972 Hong Kong Rainstorm Disasters when 71 people lost their lives when a man-made slope behind a resettlement area in Sau Mau Ping gave way, and 67 people lost their lives in a huge landslide in the Mid-Levels.

^{Sau Mau Ping}

I have no personal knowledge of the former tragedy but became involved with the rescue work for the latter:

In June 1972 it rained very heavily and constantly for weeks. My wife and I lived in Park Road police married quarters then and we were expecting our first child later that month.

The Linton Investment Company was developing a site for a twelve storey block of flats on the upper side of Conduit Road. The government had required them to provide car parking for all the flats. There was a height restriction so the only way to avoid losing money building an indoor car park was to have an outdoor car park.

As Linton did not have enough land, they employed a former Public Works Department (PWD) official as the “authorised architect” for the project to submit false plans showing that there was an existing rock face behind the site.

The original site plans were “lost” by PWD and the new plans approved. Linton then cut into the slope, which was earth and not rock, at an illegal sixty degree angle and then it started raining.

It rained heavily and continuously for weeks and nearby residents complained about all the mud in the road. A senior PWD engineer finally inspected the site and had a fit when he saw what was happening. Linton was told to immediately reinforce the slope with steel piling.

They were starting to do so after a further week of torrential rain when on the afternoon of Sunday 18 June 1972, the side of the site collapsed and a landslide buried the front of a four storey house on the other side of Conduit Road. Luckily, all the terrified occupants escaped without loss of life.

Everyone and his mother then showed up, including the top man, the Director of Public Works, and…. they pronounced it safe; the landslide had occurred, another one was unlikely! This despite large cracks appearing in Po Shan Road above the site and a wealthy doctor complaining that his stilted garden and garage in Po Shan Road appeared to be collapsing.

I was on my day-off and my wife and I were at home watching the Two Ronnies on TV when at about 9:00 pm I heard an enormous bang. I called the Upper Levels police station who told me there was a landslide in Kotewall Road. I donned anorak and boots and ran up the hill.

A huge landslide blocked the road and Fire Services and Police had just arrived. I offered my assistance to an expatriate fireman who accepted. He told me that we were standing where a twelve storey block of flats had been totally demolished, hit by an enormous landslide starting high above Po Shan Road and taking the building site and the four storey house with it and knocking six storeys off the top of a newly constructed and thankfully unoccupied high-rise above Babington Path.

After helping to rescue a couple of ground level survivors, including a naked elderly woman who must have been having a shower, I climbed down a rope into the rubble with some firemen to search for more. There was a strong smell of gas and sewage everywhere and water was still pouring down the steep slope in muddy torrents with minor slides occurring frequently.

As I untied myself, I started searching around in the rubble with my torch when I heard a faint child’s voice calling “Help me! I’m dying”. I eventually spotted a small hand protruding from the rubble and started scraping away with my hands to reveal an arm and then a shoulder and finally a young European boy’s face.

I called for help and a couple of firemen joined me. We started together to dig out more rubble and found that Jules, as he was able to give me his name, was firmly jammed under a bookcase which had undoubtedly absorbed much of the impact and saved his life. I got word back that we needed a doctor as he was in great pain but he was able to tell me that he lived in his flat with his younger brother, mother, Henry Litton and his dog.

We dug on for three hours or so, unable to use more than hand tools and cutters for fear of causing a further collapse. A doctor arrived and gave Jules morphine and he lost consciousness and it was with the greatest feeling of relief and joy that we eventually got him free. I carried him in my arms back up the steep slippery slope and, exhausted, handed him to another barefoot fireman at the top.

Here we were blinded by press flash bulbs which didn’t help. I then went with him in an ambulance to Queen Mary Hospital which was fully prepared and swiftly took charge of him. I was treated for my sewage-engrained cuts and scrapes and then returned to the scene by which time the rescue operation was in full swing with Fred Jackson, the Fire Services incident commander, personally directing things.

Every fifteen minutes a whistle would be blown for complete silence so that any sound from the rubble indicating the presence of life could be detected; none was until early the next morning when a radio alarm clock began playing a Beatles tune. This awoke a semi-conscious, deeply buried Henry Litton who started shouting for help. He was the last survivor to be rescued, many hours later, after a difficult and dangerous tunnelling operation by a combined Fire Services and Army team of volunteers.

Jules’ brother died instantly, his mother survived for a while before drowning and I never found his dog which I searched for in the area over the next few days. Jules and Henry recovered slowly together after prolonged dialysis treatment for crush injuries. Jules later went to live with his father in Canada where he now lives with his wife and Henry became a member in HK’s Court of Final Appeal before retirement in Australia.

A George Medal, a British Empire Medal for Gallantry and several Queen’s Commendations for Brave Conduct were won that day and we all joined the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, on the lawns of Government House for a special photograph after the investiture in October 1973. I seem to remember him inviting me, bending down to whisper in my ear, with the words “Join me on the lawn for a photograph after all these other buggers have gone!”, referring to the MBEs et al, but I might have misheard him….

I was later called to give evidence at the Commission of Enquiry chaired by judge TL Yang who later became Chief Justice. The authorised architect also gave evidence along with Linton personalities and PWD, Fire Services and Police officials. The enquiry confirmed that the collapsed buildings were soundly constructed and that the landslide was caused by the very heavy rainfall and the removal of the toe of the slope behind the site by Linton. However, the authorised architect skipped to Singapore and nobody was ever charged with any offence.

On the positive side, Hong Kong commenced a massive effort to identify all potentially unsafe slopes, natural and man-made, and make them safe. This has been largely successful as since that time there have only been a very few landslides incurring any loss of life or injury.

Also on the plus side, after conducting some further research a few years ago, I discovered that the authorised architect had redeemed himself somewhat by designing emergency temporary bamboo housing for disaster victims and refugees.

If you visit the site now you will sadly not find any memorial but a very peaceful rest garden has been created at the site on Kotewall Road and a childrens’ playground on Conduit Road. There is also a drainage tunnel portal on the site above Po Shan Road.