brian g

2015-10-08

Random thoughts recorded during and after typhoon Mujigae.

04/10/2015 12:15 PM

Relentless storm

I have been in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China for 4 years, had a number of typhoons (MAYBE 4) pass through here.

Never had a direct hit though, I guess. This barrage is not even a typhoon, just a tropical storm or depression as the meteorologists call them. I went out to get beer in preparation at about 10:30 this morning. I got my face blasted with not just rain drops, but sand and stones. Got home and the wife, who has been through these a lot more times than I have, had to take a pic of me at the end of my, in her mind, ludicrous journey for a couple beer.

At 11:14 the power went out.

My simple mind, figures it will be like any little tropical storm….few minutes of a downpour and then peace and quiet and sunshine.

Now at 12:30 it is doing nothing more than picking up velocity and becoming more threatening. I have always marvelled at the power of MOTHER NATURE, but this is a first for me. You should hear the sounds of the things that are hitting the building, the things that are busting up the building. I am on the 5th floor of a 28 storey building… with a lot of air “tunnels” in and around my neighborhood, and the park across the road that gets blasted with our tunnels.

Yunhua just asked me to film some more, it is a big one, she says. 12:30… 12:38. I am back indoors and happy for it. WOW, this thing is so powerful, not “this thing”, it is MOTHER NATURE.

Yunhua tells me, they once spent 5 days indoors due to inclement weather. I know her and so maybe 2 of them days were not so necessary to stay indoors.

But holy cow, and I am a very adventurous and goofy guy, no damned way I AM GOING OUT IN THIS.

1:00 PM just getting stronger and stronger, busting up more stuff.

I can guarantee you that this is as bad or worse than any PINE PASS or MANNING PASS whiteout.

Out of battery power. The rest of this was put down with pen and paper.

1:40 pm – eye of the storm, quiet and nice

2:55 pm – starting again with the winds.

3:00 pm – “first cut is the deepest”? – I see traffic picking up. Not just downed trees, downed electrical all over. Mom, 2 miles away has no power. No power as far as the eye can see.

3:00 am Oct. 5th, 2015

Still no power, 16 hours now. A little peek at my distant future - A GLIMPSE OF HELL!!

Thanks EC