Dozens of luxury cars, including a Lamborghini worth more than HKD2 million (about USD256,000), parked in an underground car park in Heng Fa Chuen are feared to be beyond repair after being soaked in seawater for over 24 hours thanks to flooding caused by Wednesday’s Typhoon Hato.
The Hong Kong Observatory issued the city’s first typhoon signal No. 10 in five years on Wednesday morning. Regions along the city’s coastline were battered by severe seawater floods, with Chai Wan’s housing estate Heng Fa Chuen among the worst-hit areas, with waves up to 6 meters high spotted washing up the promenade.
What turned out to be a watery grave for high-end vehicles only became public knowledge yesterday afternoon, after most of the seawater had been pumped out by workers from the city.
A total of 25 cars were inside in the covered car park. A woman who’s been working as a car washer for the estate for the past 30 years told Apple Daily reporters that while Hong Kong was a city struck often by typhoons, she had never seen anything like this before.
“There are [usually] three Porsches, one Ferrari, several BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes inside,” she said. From pictures taken at the scene, there also appeared to be several Audis and an orange Lamborghini Gallardo Coupe.
According to Oriental Daily, the Lamborghini’s owner, a Heng Fa Chuen resident surnamed Cheung, bought the luxury sports car in 2013 for about HKD2.53 million. Cheung’s wife told Apple Daily that her husband had full insurance and could hopefully recover the total value of the car.
Vehicles with third-party coverage could only claim compensation from insurance companies after proving the management company had been neglectful.
Frustrated car owners were finally allowed to begin towing their beloved dirt-filled cars away starting at 9pm last night, with some reportedly becoming emotional when asked to disclose the prices of their vehicles. In interviews with local media outlets, some accused the estate’s developer, MTR Corporation, of failing to notify them of the potential flooding and failing to block the water from rushing into the car park.
An MTR spokesperson later said asking them to drive the cars out in extreme weather could have put their lives at risk.
District Councillor Stanley Ho told SCMP that the affected car owners would seek compensation from the developer.
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