Typhoon Noul Gale Blows 6-Year-Old From Shenzhen Shop as Girl Returns Unharmed

Q: How did a six-year-old survive being blown out of a building by a 100 mph typhoon without a single scratch?

She appears to have survived because the gust threw her only a short distance from a ground-floor doorway onto a grassy verge, rather than into hard debris or into the air for long. Reports from Hongxing News say the six-year-old was blown from inside her family’s grocery shop when a sudden blast forced the door open during Typhoon Noul, then landed outside and walked back in unhurt. A 100 mph figure refers to Typhoon Noul’s maximum sustained winds near the eye at landfall in Guangdong, not necessarily the exact force of the gust at that shop in Shenzhen. Wind inside streets and around doors can create brief, violent bursts strong enough to knock over a small child or pull her through an opening, without producing the kind of impact that causes obvious injury every time. Her age and size likely made her easier to move, but survival without injury would also have depended on the mechanics of the incident: a low height, a short travel distance, no collision with sharp objects, and a relatively forgiving landing surface. In storms, many injuries come from flying debris or from being slammed into walls, vehicles or concrete. That does not appear to have happened here. So the answer is not that a child can somehow withstand a typhoon unharmed, but that this was a narrow escape shaped by luck, a brief gust, and a soft landing.

2 articles · Updated · South China Morning Post · Jul 26

Footage from Shenzhen showed a 6-year-old girl swept from a ground-floor grocery shop onto a grass verge, then running back inside unharmed.
Gale-force winds from Typhoon Noul blew the shop door open while the owners and two of their three children were taking cover, leaving the parents unable to reach the eldest child in time.
The girl's father said the gust came suddenly and called it frightening in hindsight after seeing his daughter make her way back on her own.
Typhoon Noul was described as the strongest storm to hit China so far this year and made landfall about 55 km from the site.