Forest succession has been described to involve first a building phase followed by a thinning phase. How quickly tropical forests return to pre-disturbance levels is still unclear. We investigated changes in forest structure and tree community composition in a tropical forest in Singapore impacted by an unusually strong wind event in 2011, focusing on a hypothesised thinning phase. Stem densities of affected areas had declined by more than 50% from 2015 to 2023, while tree total basal area continued to increase slightly. Stem densities and basal area were not significantly different between affected and unaffected areas in 2023. Plot-level tree diversity also reduced between 2015 and 2023 in tandem with the loss of stems, but diversity in affected plots were still higher than that of unaffected plots in 2023. There was some evidence of a trajectory towards convergence in species composition between affected and unaffected plots, although species compositions were still different from the pre-disturbance state. Our findings provide insights on the legacies of wind disturbance on forests that endure beyond 12 years for the hurricane-free, equatorial tropics.