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Sunday, December 27, 2015

Typhoon News

We have now experienced our 3rd typhoon.  Each one had a personality all its own.


The first one in July of 2014 we didn't have any warning about.  When we were watching the storm, we could see waves occasionally coming up on the sand outside of our front door.  We were quite concerned until we saw that the waves had taken away enough sand to reveal a break wall two doors towards the beach from our door. There were the typical high winds, big waves, and lots of rain.   But we fared very well.  When the storm was over, it had taken about 6 feet of sand off of the beach, leaving 5 feet of the break wall  exposed.  A huge tree in the front of the pool, on the beach had fallen over because of no remaining root support from the missing sand.  There was debris everywhere.






In December of 2014 we were warned of a Super Typhoon heading across the Philippines.  We prepared rooms in the ministry center in case people needed to leave their homes and come there for shelter.  As the storm approached, it again made landfall several times and by the time it reached Aninuan it wasn't even labeled a typhoon it had lost so much power.  It was a Tropical Storm when it hit us.  


We went up to the ministry center and waited for people to come.  No one came.  We went back to our apartment by the beach to watch it roll in.  That storm left the beach very dirty.  The rain had started the river running that empties into the sea.  So the water was carrying everything that had been sitting on the dry river bed for months.  


The morning after the storm
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The day after, the sea had scooped up what it had deposited and cleaned the beach up again.

The 2nd morning after the storm.

On December 15th of this year, 2015, we knew that another typhoon was coming. This time we stayed in our apartment and went about our business...UNTIL...we noticed that water was coming in the window in our office...ON THE 2ND FLOOR.  We got out some towels and laid them on the floor..then we put some in the window track...then in the metal frame...then we used wash cloths to catch the water before it went into the lower gap.  We squeezed water out of towels for 3 or 4 hours non-stop until we could hardly squeeze anymore.


Well into the process we stuffed the washcloth into the lower gap and left it there with the corner of the cloth hanging down.  It wasn't long before water started running out of the corner, so I lifted the corner away from the wall so it would drip into the bucket below.  Then we propped paper clips under the wash cloth and against the wall to position the dripping corner over the bucket without human contact.  We had finally built a better mouse trap.  We still had towels to squeeze out, but that gave us a break.  We dumped out 6+ gallons of water that had come in through the window frame.



As part of my normal routine after a storm, I went to capture pictures of what the sea spit out.  



        Many big trees were dragged in this time all the way down the beach.                      


But here is my all time favorite storm deposit...so far.  A puffer fish.





The mate to this boot was 50 yards down the beach.



This is the way they take care of the debris from the storms.



We were left with no power in the village for 5 days.  We have generators at Tamaraw and at the ministry center, but most people do not.  So, at the ministry center on Saturday, when we paid the bracelet makers, we created a charging station with as many available sockets as possible.  Everyone brought there dead cell phone to be charged.  Most of these phones are much nicer than my phone.   

   



1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing your adventures! It's fascinating to someone like me who has never experienced such dramatic whether on a beach front! - Cindy F.

    ReplyDelete