Having lived in Taiwan, I experienced a lot of typhoons. The island seemed to have about 3 or 4 of them a year. Most of them didn't really affect me that much, since I lived in the city, and not the countryside. I lived for 3 years in Hsinchu, and 1 year in Taichung. Hsinchu is surrounded by mountains, so it's pretty well-protected from any major typhoons. I remember numerous "typhoon days" where Christy and I didn't have to work. We would just stay home with the kids and watch the rain outside. Sometimes I'd think that the rain wasn't even that strong, and wonder why they needed to shut the entire city down. There's been rainy days here in Austin that are stronger than some of the Taiwan "typhoon days", but business goes on as usual.
Here in Texas, we have "hurricane days", but since I work at a hospital, I have to go to work no matter how bad the weather is outside. There would have to be a flooding and downed trees blocking the streets for me to be able to call out on a hurricane day. But since Austin is in central Texas, most hurricanes have weakened by the time they reach here.
The latest typhoon in Taiwan, "Typhoon Morakot" seems to be stronger than any I experienced when I was living there. Buildings are toppling over, and many have died. My mother and father in-law, who live in Ju-Shan (in the countryside) are both okay. My wife has been calling them daily. They have told her that the mudslides are a couple of towns away from where they live, but they've still been experiencing heavy rain.
It's good to see the Taiwanese people working together to help each other to find survivors that may be trapped in the mudslides. On the other end of the coin, though, it's not so good to see people cheering as buildings collapse into the flood waters. We watched on the news as a hotel fell amid cheering crowds outside. The hotel wasn't destroyed on purpose. It was owned by somebody, and a source of employment for many people. Would they have cheered if they worked there? Probably not.
(Picture: a Taiwan hotel collapses from Typhoon Morakot)
Here in Texas, we have "hurricane days", but since I work at a hospital, I have to go to work no matter how bad the weather is outside. There would have to be a flooding and downed trees blocking the streets for me to be able to call out on a hurricane day. But since Austin is in central Texas, most hurricanes have weakened by the time they reach here.
The latest typhoon in Taiwan, "Typhoon Morakot" seems to be stronger than any I experienced when I was living there. Buildings are toppling over, and many have died. My mother and father in-law, who live in Ju-Shan (in the countryside) are both okay. My wife has been calling them daily. They have told her that the mudslides are a couple of towns away from where they live, but they've still been experiencing heavy rain.
It's good to see the Taiwanese people working together to help each other to find survivors that may be trapped in the mudslides. On the other end of the coin, though, it's not so good to see people cheering as buildings collapse into the flood waters. We watched on the news as a hotel fell amid cheering crowds outside. The hotel wasn't destroyed on purpose. It was owned by somebody, and a source of employment for many people. Would they have cheered if they worked there? Probably not.
(Picture: a Taiwan hotel collapses from Typhoon Morakot)
The problem with this typhoon was that it followed a drought. It was not very big as typhoons go, but the dry land was not able to soak up as much water as it normally would have. Most of the dead died from the floods and landslides.
ReplyDeleteThe rain itself was no heavier than the average typhoon, but the wind was strong enough to make our building sway. That is actually pretty interesting, if you assume the building is strong enough not to collapse.
My favorite was the super typhoon that hit the tiny dirt village I used to live in. There was very little flooding since it was nowhere near a valley like 小林, but the strong winds took out more than a few buildings and the fallen trees made several roads inpenetrable. When you live in a tiny dirt village you need all the roads you have.
I have had two typhoon days off work in all the time I have lived in the big city. I never had a single typhoon day in the tiny dirt village. None of the students showed up at the height of the super typhoon, but I still went to work.
Ball & Chain showed me the clip of the hotel going down while people cheered. Apparently we stayed there once several years ago.