Early last week over the choppy waters of the Pacific Ocean, the weather conditions aligned perfectly to form a tropical depression for the eleventh time this year. Although still hundreds of miles off the shores of Taiwan, a frenzy had already stricken its residents. Weather websites starting compiling hit after hit as viewers constantly refreshed their browsers to see the latest animations of the projected path.
Every colleague and every passing friend became an amateur meteorologist, each with their own speculation on top wind speeds and anticipated landfall dates.
Only one thing was certain: This swelling, rotary cloud mass was headed straight for Taiwan.
Most news channels and weather experts showed the eye of the approaching storm, that has earned the rank of a Category 2 Typhoon (which, to clear things up, is only another word for "hurricane"), passing over Taipei City at some point on Friday August 7th.
Would it be enough to close schools? The only thing we could do is wait, as the tempest known as "Morakot" surged onward with northern Taiwan in its cross-hairs.
We got the call Thursday evening; Our school was included in the list of government mandated school closings. The anticipation was building, and although I was sporting sunglasses and a sweat-bead mustache on my walk to school that morning, my walk home was wet with foreboding rain.
Taking the necessary precautionary measures for typhoon survival, Mike and I headed out to stock up for what we were expecting to be 2 days of weather induced house-arrest. We returned home in mild, rain-filled winds with 24 Taiwan Beers, 4 DVDs, and just enough Doritos and ramen noodles to keep starvation at bay for the duration of the treacherous storm.
As Thursday night quickly ticked its way to early Friday morning, the wind speed increased, sending the rain in what seemed like every direction but straight down. The wind, which seemed to be amplified being 23 floors from the ground, howled through the night.
Friday continued with the same routine, although it was nothing too crazy. Mike and I braved the elements and went out for lunch. Then, during the brunt of the storm, I, in my mesh shorts, and Mike in his board shorts, went out for pizza.
With the pizza, beer, and chips, we yawned our way through the rest of the Morakot. I woke up Saturday morning to chirping birds and blue skies. Life in Taipei County returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened.
Apparently some people died and places got flooded other places in Taiwan. For me, it was a nice day off from school, but otherwise an unimpressive excuse for a typhoon.
2 comments:
Thanks for the update. We were worried about you. I'm glad you were not in any other danger besides wearing mesh shorts.
In retrospect this is a very insensitive post. In my defense, most of the devastation took place after I wrote this. Either way... my bad.
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