typhooned again
Saturday, September 27th, 2008I’m up early today in case the cleaning lady comes, but I’m really hoping she doesn’t. This is not weather to ride a scooter in. Typhoon Jangmi is scheduled to hit us today or tonight, and the winds and rain are already here. At the moment the rain is falling in the same gusting sheets we saw during Sinlaku, but winds are much stronger. The various news sources I can find online are conflicting, saying that the typhoon is anywhere from Category 3 to 5 right now, but of course it will weaken as it gets closer to land. Taipei is ringed by mountains, so it won’t get those sorts of winder, but I’d bet we are getting near-Cat 1 hurricane winds right now. I keep hearing bangs and crashes outside from things blowing off balconies or rubbish being blown, and I didn’t in the two previous typhoons that passed over. (Three, but Hagupit last week was far enough offshore than Taipei didn’t really see any effect, though the south side of the island did.) I was awakened by the wind at 3AM so I brought the chairs from our balcony inside before they got too wet.
I think this must be why Costco was so packed yesterday. I cant say I enjoyed the experience, but I’m glad I went instead of waiting for today!
My neighborhood is very new, and the buildings seem to be well-designed. The underground garage has its own flood door, even. I’ll post updates if anything interesting happens, and will post once this storm’s over – they expect the heavy rains to continue until Tuesday, but at least this one’s moving out faster than Sinlaku.