Hong Kong power outages hit Ho Man Tin, disrupting 1,000 households and hotel

Two power outages hit Hong Kong’s Ho Man Tin, the first lasting more than four hours overnight into Thursday, disrupting hotel operations and about 1,000 households.

CLP Power, which supplies electricity to Kowloon and the New Territories, said equipment near Waterloo Road in Kowloon first malfunctioned at 11.18pm on Wednesday, affecting about 1,000 customers.

“After CLP Power’s engineering personnel conducted an emergency repair and deployed some mobile electricity generators at the scene, the power supply was resumed at 3.47am on Thursday,” a spokesman said.

“As residents consumed power on Thursday morning, the temporary power supply experienced instability due to heavy load, temporarily affecting power supply for about 650 customers. Following emergency repairs, electricity was progressively restored to the affected customers by 8am.”

CLP said its community support team and customer service managers stayed in contact and coordinated with the Home Affairs Department’s district office, district councillors and property management companies.

It added that it had provided batteries and emergency lighting systems to affected buildings and properties.

Police received four reports of power outages between 11.36pm on Wednesday and 1am on Thursday from residents on Waterloo Road and Argyle Street.

The Fire Services Department also received three reports at around 11.30pm on Wednesday of people trapped in lifts in buildings on Argyle Street and Waterloo Road.

An elderly man wearing an oxygen tube in his nose was seen being taken away by ambulance from Richland House on Waterloo Road.

The outage also affected operations at Metropark Hotel Kowloon, where staff used torches and visitors sat in the lobby.

A tourist told the media that his hotel room had no air conditioning, so he had to cool off on the street. He added that the hotel’s lights and one of its lifts were still working.

Some residents also took to social media with one user saying she could not get home and had to stay on the street.