Sunday, June 22, 2008

Typhoon!

Today around four in the morning is when the winds woke me up. You know, the eerie, whistling kind favored in scary movies and Scooby-Doo cartoons?

Yeah, that.

The typhoon is known as Typhoon Frank or Typhoon Fengshen, depending on which news service I read. Fengshen sounds better for a typhoon. After all, hurricanes in the US get anglo names all the time. Why should they when they are in this part of the world?

Typhoon Frank. Stupid name, to be perfectly frank.

I know you're all expecting photos from it all, but all the drama happened before daylight, so I couldn't capture any of it for you. Around here a couple trees tipped over and a sign in front of our condo was destroyed. Otherwise, no big deal.

The real news from Frank was further south where over one hundred have been killed, tens of thousands are stranded on their roofs (like in New Orleans), and a ferry capsized with over seven hundred aboard. A town councilor nearest the accident was reported saying they were waiting for rescuers, but none had arrived, and all the pump boats in the town were broken. Read that as typical Filipino. According to my friend Antonio, who was studying to be an EMT here, over half the ambulances/fire/emergency equipment in metro Manila in inoperative! Donors grandiosely purchase this type of equipment for communities, painting their names on it for all to know who could afford to buy and give away such needed vehicles. What none of these donors do is provide for maintenance. It's hard to advertise that, and that is what the donation thing is all about. Suffice it to say, we feel good our hospital, police department, and fire department are all across the street from us, we have a fire hydrant below the building, and only thirteen stories worth of stairs to descend in case of emergency.

Here's another reason I didn't shoot any pictures:

This, I read, was shot by a woman in Iowa or some other flat, mid-western state. I suppose this 21st century Dorothy Gale carries a digital camera, not dog Toto with her anymore!

I'm not as crazy/brave to go outside and shoot a tornado that is just down the street. Nor am I going to run outside when I see winds toppling trees! (I haven't even posted this yet, but can already hear the sighs of relief from my parents as they read it!)

Anyway, to be perfectly frank, and that only seems appropriate...as frank-ness is all around me...it is four in the afternoon now and I've been up since practically four in the morning, so I'm going to call an end to this post and take a nap!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

AAAHHHHH!!!!! = Parent sighing.