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Everyone knows about Japan's earthquakes. Not many know about Japan's other major natural disaster: the typhoon. The typhoon season runs from June through September. There may be a dozen or more typhoons in a season. A few will come ashore and cause significant damage, mainly from flooding, landslides, and high waves along shorelines. Public transportation-trains, planes, etc.-is often delayed or canceled. Schools also close. Companies may bring in bedding for their employees (but work never stops!). Typhoons are closely monitored by the authorities, and warnings are broadcast on tv, radio and in the newspapers beginning several days in advance of landfall. Because of the enormous number of plant containers and other 'stuff' on our lanai, I don't want to start moving it inside unless I know for sure that the typhoon will be hitting us directly. By the time that fact is established, it is often almost too late, and I'm usually outside battling gale-force winds and rain, and barely able to stand, much less carry heavy objects. |
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| This is the Cafe Luca coffee bar located in the center of the River Mall. Exposed on all sides to the roaring winds and rain of the typhoon and unattached to the concrete pavement, the bar was in danger of literally blowing away. So owner Mike parked his van next to and tied the two to each other with heavy-duty towing cables, hoping that the weight of the combined package would keep them both in place (or at least near enough to find and haul back later). It worked. |
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| Supposedly protected by the myriad concrete walls surrounding it, this bamboo grove just outside our building still got flattened by the typhoon. |
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