Typhoon Muifa

So we are finally trying to start drying out from the typhoon. My first ever typhoon, and I've pretty much decided that I'd rather be living where tornadoes are commonplace. Crazy, I know, but those I can deal with. They come and go quicker than you can blink, and the destruction takes just as long to clean up. Anyway....here we go.....we knew last week that there was a typhoon coming--people do the same thing here as at home in the winter....buy all the milk and bread! Well, they originally thought that the typhoon would hit us Sunday night/Monday morning, but it slowed down a bit, and then it was suppose to be here Tues night/ Wed morning. By Wed, we were prepared for it to hit Thurs night. This was suppose to be worse than the one they had at the end of May, which was a fairly big one. When everyone left work Wed, we were told that starting Thurs morning, we would be getting closer to the typhoon. Thurs morning, all the pregnant women in their third trimesters were to check-in at the hospital for observation--of the 35 that were in the hospital over the duration of the typhoon, at least 9 gave birth during the course of the storm.

The wind started picking up midmorning Thurs, and by the time the sun went down that night, we were battened down in homes waiting for the rain to get worse. The dogs were horribly whiny, just like me.....but closing the doors made more racket than leaving them open. As the winds got stronger, the building shook--I couldn't really feel it moving, but the closed doors banged against the doorframes with every gust. And it didn't let up at all. The rain was blown every which way, and it just kept coming. The typhoon seemed to all but stall over the island as the winds and rain kept coming for over 48 hours. Several of the other bases had power lines down, flooding, and one even had a gas pump overturned at one of the gas stations. Our post office on base lost its doors, and one of the fire escape stairwells on our building lost its door--it looked like the Terminator had kicked it out, just laying on the ground like it was waiting to be installed.....

I haven't been around to see the damage yet, and church was cancelled today because there was no power at the building, and the doors are electric....but it felt good outside last night when we were all clear--people swarmed the food courts looking for something other than what they had been eating for days, or just to get out of the house. I never thought I could get cabin fever so bad....I can stay inside for days, or go out only to give the dogs a walk....I think the problem is that I knew that I COULDN'T go anywhere, not even outside to walk the dogs. Having that decision taken away from me made me crazy. However, I did watch all 2 seasons (all they made) of The Legend of the Seeker while I was stuck inside. We didn't lose power, but our internet was going in and out, the lights did flicker once or twice though. And forget making phone calls. We have cell phones here, and to use them at home, we have to go out on the balcony....but with the wind blowing as hard as it was, you couldn't hear yourself think, let alone carry on a conversation on the phone.....

I am glad that I've had this experience, but wouldn't be horribly depressed if I don't have to go through that again for awhile!