Surviving Mangkhut?

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When I look out the window from my 22nd-floor apartment in Causeway Bay, the view is filled with glittering lights from the high rises surrounding the Hong Kong harbor. Anchored boats are gently rolling on the water below me. Lots of cars are driving by on the Wai Chan Bypass
It all seems so romantic, but it is - literally - the quiet before the storm.

Mangkhut, the fiercest typhoon ever to hit Hong Kong in all of recorded history, is just hours away and I, coming from a peaceful Denmark, which was never hit by any major natural disasters, have no idea of what to expect.

The last few days, CNN has been wall-to-wall about the storm Florence, which was hitting Florida. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated and as far as the news was concerned, the US storm was a matter of life or death.

The Mangkhut  typhoon, coming our way, is so strong, it should  make Florence look like just a mere puff of wind, but here in Hong Kong, I see no preparations for major evacuations, no  warnings on TV - and no mention about the fact that Manghkut, as far as I can see, will be hitting two major nuclear powerplants just before it arrives in the city

Do the Chinese government really have everything under control? Or are the threats put under wraps because a totalitarian government just doesn't want to look weak or insecure?

Would proper warnings to millions of people, living on an island like Hong Kong,  be futile or would they just lead to panic and stampedes?

I really don't have a clue, but now I've bought some bottled water, I've stocked up on chocolate bars and moved the bed away from eventual flying glass¨, if the windows are blown to splinters

I'll be wiser in a few hours, but I must admit: I'm more than a little bit thrilled by soon having front row seats to a majestic natural event.

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