July 18th, 2005
Phoon Day
We did end up having the day off, and it was pretty strange.
Inside our complex, we could hardly tell anything was going on because our building is so sheltered by the other buildings. My back porch, however, was where all the action was at. Aluminum rooftops were flapping in the wind, and garbage was flying around. No one could go out between late last night and this morning.
I stayed up pretty late, checking the front and back porch from time to time, just for interest’s sake. In the morning the power went off a few times, so I just stayed in bed. Around 11, one lady had a 15 minute screaming fit in the apartment courtyard. I have no idea what it was about but it was intense- I’ll have to ask the ladies for the latest gossip. It’s not the first public spaz we’ve woken up to while living here either, I think maybe we live in the slums!
By noon, there was absolutely nothing going on. A little wind, no rain, and our power was back on. I was disappointed because I wanted some forced time away from the computer- I’m addicted, and it takes a power outage to keep me away. But at least I’ll be traveling soon, and I won’t be on it as often.
We decided to go out for a ride around town, but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea, and ‘Typhoon Monday’ was just as busy as Sundays are. Many businesses were open. We drove past the Geant supermarket, but the cars had overflowed the parking lot- too busy! We then went to RT-Mart, which was just about the same, but we were bored so we went in and joined the freak show.
Photos aren’t allowed in RT-Mart (ignorant me), but pushing, shoving, and budging sure are!
I had my little Pentax optioS4 with me, so I took just one photo of some downed branches. Yuanlin is right next to the mountains, so we were a little sheltered. It was much more exciting in other cities for damage.
July 19th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
Hi Les, I remember you saying Taiwan never makes it into the news. Well, today it did. There were a few pictures of the weather and they said there was 500,000 people evacuated along the coast. Glad to hear every thing is ok where you are.
SJ
July 20th, 2005 at 9:40 am
glad to hear that you are fine too. i saw the news on CNN a couple of days ago, but it was the UK version of CNN.
July 20th, 2005 at 4:10 pm
Whew - well avoided; glad that it didn’t prove to be too serious for you guys!
July 20th, 2005 at 4:55 pm
That’s interesting to hear that the news bothered to show coverage of Taiwan, especially considering the hurricane in the states right now. (I don’t think that was covered much in the local Taiwan news…).
The evacuations were in China, about 200km away from here. I think they were in a more precarious situation than people in Taiwan- many people in China living right on the coast. Most people here on the westcoast live inland, I don’t even think there were any evacuations here. 4 deaths though, so not so good.