Typhoon

We experienced our first typhoon this past week. On Monday children at school were excited because a big typhoon was predicted. Typhoons here are like blizzards in Minnesota - they carry the potential of canceling school for a day.

Monday evening the winds picked up and the rain started. At first it was a typical thunderstorm, but then the rain came down in torrents and the wind had the trees dipping and waving. In our cement block apartment building with study windows we were safe and dry.

Monday evening the public and private primary and secondary schools canceled classes for Tuesday since the brunt of the storm was to reach us by Tuesday afternoon. Ferries stopped running, flights were delayed, and businesses closed early.

The college didn't decide to close until Tuesday morning, which caused a lot of confusion. Some faculty road the city buses to campus at 8:00am. Others waited for the college shuttle buses to pick them up at their usual spots, standing with umbrellas in the wind and rain.

The college e-mail notice told us to keep checking for more messages because if the warning level went down, classes would resume in the afternoon. At 12:00pm we received notice that classes would start again at 2:00pm. As I headed out at 12:30pm to catch the shuttle bus to campus, the rain was coming down in torrents and the wind was still blowing. My pants were soaked by the time I got on the bus. Amazingly, 38 out of 50 students showed up for my class.

By 3:00pm the storm had passed leaving lots of small branches and signs blown over, a number of big trees uprooted, and a few flimsy buildings without roofs. Now we understand that the braces around the trees on the boulevards are there to stablize them during a storm.

One of the nice things about typhoons is that the temperature drops and the wind feels good!