Typhoon Haitung

It's not here, yet, but it's coming. I decided to turn on the TV so that I could find something out about it, as I couldn't find anything on the web. I heard one weatherman (I think that it was on CNN - they haven't turned off the cable, yet, assuming, perhaps, that one day I'll pay - hahah! They would be wrong!) say that if this were in the Atlantic, it would be rated a category 5. I saw on the web that Hurricane Emily is considered a Category 4 and "extremely dangerous." So this must be worse. I can't tell the relative sizes of this typhoon versus the hurricanes that have hit Florida in recent years, though, I just know that on the satellite pictures, the typhoon very much dwarfs Taiwan. Right now, on the satellite picture, a small arm is smacking the whole of Taiwan. We haven't even gotten to the big stuff. . .

My co-manager called me up to warn me about it - it's supposed to hit, tonight. One of my employees also called me up to let me know that we should not go into work, tomorrow (the government declared a day off - in advance!).

I'm hoping that the power stays on. I feel so petty. Here, people's crops may well be ruined, flooding may ruin people's possessions, houses, lives, but what do I care about? The power.

I'm not sure that there is a way to capture this on film. But I should take a audio recording of the howling of the wind. It started around noon, today, and hasn't really let up. I suppose that a headache from the howling wind would be considered a minor inconvenience should that be all that happens. I decided that I'd better try to protect the glass of the sliding doors in the apartment by shutting the metal gates that are intended for theft prevention on the front balcony. The rain sometimes comes down as if someone was in the sky pouring buckets of water down. As some of my employees have said, "there's big rain."

When I was asking where would be a safe place to observe the Typhoon happenings, I was pretty much told nowhere - or, rather, from the safety of the apartment. On the streets, the biggest concern is with wind, picking things up and throwing them around, and stuff that is up, coming down, like all of the signs that the various stores have. Trees coming down is another concern. When I suggested the riverside park, I was told that that's not safe due to possible flooding. The hills can become oversaturated with all of the rain, and then the landslides start.

Haha! I just taped my sliding doors, and there is no more howling. Very happy. . .

Anyway, be safe. I'll report back after the Typhoon, assuming that power and communcations remain in tact.

leora