Typhoon Pamela (1954)

On October 26, a tropical cyclone formed east of the Philippines, having a minimum pressure of . Early the next day, the Fleet Weather Center (FWC) began tracking the cyclone, which had intensified into a tropical storm, naming it Pamela. The JMA followed suit the next day, noting that it had intensified into a tropical storm and deepened to have a minimum pressure of . Soon after, Pamela began intensifying again, having 1-minute sustained winds of early on October 31, being a Category 2-equivalent hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. The next day, Pamela made landfall in China as a minimal typhoon. As a result, early on September 7, Pamela weakened into a tropical storm, prior to the JMA last tracking the typhoon a few hours later. The FWC kept tracking it until it had weakened into a tropical depression early the next day. == Preparations and impact ==

All of Hong Kong's cross harbour ferry services and some tram services were suspended prior to the typhoon. In Hong Kong, baby was killed by a loosened rock and three fisherman died after their boat capsized. Additionally, an electrician was indirectly killed while repairing an electrical line broken during the typhoon. In total, five deaths and thirteen injuries were recorded in the island. Both Quarry Bay and North Point received a storm surge of . In Haiphong, all of the Task Force 90 ships, vessels which were involved in Operation Passage to Freedom, had to evade the typhoon until November 7. Alongside the southern coast of China, Pamela sunk around 1,100 fishing boats, causing it to be the "worst disaster to the fishing people of South China in a century". The USS Muskingum, a cargo ship which at the time was southwest of Taiwan, was caught in the typhoon. As a result, the British steamer HMS Birmingham, a Norwegian motor ship Hoi Houw, and a ship off the coast of Luzon began searching for it. A man fell off the USS Helena and had to be saved by a lifeboat crew. Elsewhere, the moorings of the SS Gujarat were torn. Two Hong Kong fishing trawlers, which had a crew of 14 and 12 respectively, went missing due to rough seas produced by Pamela. == References ==