Typhoon Day # 6

Well, we are yet again in the midst of another large typhoon.

So far, Taiwan has had 6 typhoons (hurricanes) come through here in the last 2-3 months. This is actually about par for the course during our Typhoon season, but with each one seemingly getting stronger and stronger it is kind of pissing off the locals.

And this typhoon is supposed to be the worst one yet - AND - it should be heading right up the west coast, which spells bad news for Taichung and Taipei. Usually, the 'Phoons' come on the east coast, hit the high mountains and are deflected up and out, taking a swipe at Hua Lien and Tai Dong (2 other cities on the east coast). But this time should be...interesting.

I wonder if it will match the intensity of the typhoon I witnessed when I was here as an exchange student some....whoa - that was a LONG time ago - anyway, let's just say 'a long time ago.' I did not understand so much then about the power of typhoons and also did not have the obligatory cell phone or access to news as I do now.

I still remember that day, I woke up and went to work as usual and thought it strange that there were very few cars on the road, quite a few trees (actual trees) lying on the road, signs all over the place and rain that was going everyway but down. Oh, and did I mention that the wind seemed 'strong' to me as I was nearly blown off my motorycle abotu 3 times waiting for the light to turn green?

Ah, those naive days....

When I did fianlly make it to work, I found the doors locked and another foreigner waiting outside trying to stay a wee bit dry from the rain and deciding if he really wanted to go back home - since he rode a bicycle.....We both decided that this was what must be called a typhoon and we should go back home, hook up on pizza and cookies and relax.

It sort of worked out like that, except there was no pizza and most of the things in my apartment at that time got soaked (I did not close the windows).

Anyway, I learned later that that particular typhoon was the island's worst storm in decades.

We'll see how this one fares. Already Jo and I went to eat lunch and on the way back, we were both blown by the wind. Jo I can understand, but me? I am a big boy and even I had to rebalance myself as we walked home (me practically carrying Jo home). And the real storm will not be here til tonight!

But, on the bright side, maybe I can finally catch up on blogging more?

Jeff

ps. Well, about an hour after I posted this, Zak came downstairs and casually mentioned that a piece of his balcony roof broke off. Granted, this roof was a metal sheet that was put up many years ago and I was surprised that it lasted this long (especially after the last typhoon), but at least it is true that it seems much more powerful.....

This was when we tried to bungee the edge of the roof to the wall to keep it from shaking more.....


But it did not do much good and the thing crashed down. It looks terrible, but there was minimal damage to the waterfall, or the main structures. However, Zak's turtles were scared shellless and some of his nicely positioned rocks were scattered. Oh well, time to redo it.

All I can say now is that we farred a lot better than others; this was minor (but still kind of interesting).