The whole operation of evacuation and rescue took about eight hours to complete and involved officers from TWDIST assisted by Emergency Unit and Police Tactical Unit New Territories South. Some of the TWDIST officers had volunteered to pitch in after finishing their shifts.

TWDIST Commander Austin Kerrigan has praised his men for their response. He stated: "In responding to the situation my officers were selfless, displayed courage and were very professional."

To find out about the events leading to the evacuation operation, OffBeat has talked to some of the officers who were dispatched to the scene immediately after the Regional Command and Control Centre had received reports of landslide and flooding at Lo Wai about 4.30 pm.

Both Station Sergeant Kong Kin-chung of Patrol Sub-unit and Sergeant Ng Sai-hing of Task Force Sub-unit (TFSU) said they had never come across in their police lives anything like what had happened in Lo Wai.

Said SSGT Kong: "When we arrived at the scene, the main road to Lo Wai was completely blocked by mud washed down from hillsides, causing a lot of chaos. There were many tourists visiting the nearby Yuen Yuen Institute and the Western Monastery. As a safety measure, we immediately evacuated them at the outset."

As they were busy carrying out evacuation of the tourists, SSGT Kong and his fellow officers heard an urgent message on the radio: "Flood water is coming! Run! Run!"

As everybody, including police, firemen and villagers, dashed for safety, SSGT Kong saw a lot of mud and water, together with debris, rubbish and petroleum gas cylinders, rushing down the road. As a result, road and railings were damaged. "It was really a very alarming sight!" he recalled.

As the situation appeared getting out of hand, TWDIST, after consulting the Fire Services Department, decided to evacuate the villagers to a temporary shelter set up in the Lo Wai Public School.

Difficulty facing officers

Recounting the evacuation, SGT Ng said the main difficulty facing officers was villagers' reluctance to leave their homes.

He added: "Most of the villagers are elderly people; they have lived in their village for most of their lives. They feared once they left, they would not be able to come back. So we had spent a lot of time explaining the situation and persuading them to leave immediately."

SGT Ng can hardly forget the operation to rescue the people stranded in the Lung Mo Temple.

He recalled: "We had spent almost a whole day patrolling villages, and thus were very exhausted after working for extra hours in evacuating the villagers. By about 8 pm when we were about to take a break, we received a call that an elderly man was stranded in the temple, which is situated near the top of a hill. So we immediately set off to the temple."

Although the officers are familiar with the area, getting to the temple in darkness under the prevailing situation was far from safe - more flood water, rocks and mud were coming on their way rapidly.

"The water was up to our knees and we'd to grasp the railing along the path and proceeded step by step in darkness. We took more than half an hour to get to the temple, while the usual time is just five minutes," said SGT Ng.

Police Constables Leung Chi-keung and Chan Siu-keung, both from TFSU, told OffBeat they were glad that all the villagers had been evacuated to safety, and that none of their follow officers had got hurt in the operation.

SSGT Kong pointed out that the evacuation operation had brought out his fellow officers' team spirit and camaraderie.

"I want to thank SGT Ng and his team for offering a big help in the operation. They were about to be off duty when the incident occurred, but they turned up voluntarily at the scene to give a hand," he noted.

The safety of those villagers, whose houses were not affected by landslides, was also a matter of concern to officers.

On the day of evacuation, SGT Ng and his team called on an 89-year-old villager, Mr Chow Hing-yin, to make sure he was safe.

Mr Chow was so deeply moved by the visit that he, despite having lost all his fingers, still managed to take to pen to express his gratitude. Part of his letter to Mr Kerrigan read: "For an old man like me who lives alone, I was very scared and felt helpless when there were flooding, landslides and tree falling in our village. However, I was so fortunate to have such nice officers coming to see and comfort me. They took care of me and treated me like their family member!"

Everyone deserves a big pat on the back