So, I survived. I am alive, I am not dead! 🙂
Typhoon Glenda veered slightly south so actually, we weren’t hit nearly as bad as we could have been. Still even a week later there are some here in Manila that are without power. They said a whopping 90% of the city was without power due to the storm hitting the main supply plant near Cavite. For about 4 days after the storm we experienced “rolling brownouts” and were without power off an on. Typically typhoon season means lots of rain and the tarpaulin billboards scrunchied down to save them from being torn down in the wind. We expected, being in a Category 1 state of warning, that it would not be all that different. Most of us went to bed expecting work to be lessened due to rain but not completely shut down… haha, except that in what felt like 5 minutes we went from Category 1 to Category 3. I woke up around 3am and ran around my house closing windows and other friend said they were out taking in patio funiture and taking down decorations. It got a little cray cray over here.
I didn’t have power and regretfully I had not charged my phone overnight. This guy was responsible for the fact that I did not have generator power (and why should I have when so many did not). I decided I would read but then I realized I had inadvertently left the wifi on after downloading a book and it too was completely dead. So, there I was in my house minding my own business, walking back and forth from the front window to the back window, watching the wind blow and hearing the fruit clunk (which has been a blessing since now there’s no fruit to fall, WOOT WOOT) when I hear a voice yelling “CRRRYYYYSTAAALLLL CRRYYSSTTAALL, WE NEED TO MOVE YOUR CAR!!”
My friend and crazy man Harold was standing outside decked out in rain gear. He had been traipsing around campus checking out damage. There weren’t really many places that were safe from the possibility of falling trees but we managed to move my car (which was surrounded by huge fallen branches but not hit by any) up to the school where it was much safer. I decided to go along with him since I could use the generator power at school. Smartest thing I ever did getting to know the people who live on campus! ;P But this is the kind of people they are whether they lived on campus or not they would always be caring for other people.
There was a fair amount of damage around school and there was foliage literally EVERYWHERE. I thought it would take days to clean up but almost within 24 hours it felt like it never happened (well except where parts of buildings are still missing).
Once the rains stopped main people ventured up to campus to use power and internet and we walked around inspecting damages.
“QUICK! Get trees off power lines while there’s no power!!”
Well, that’s about all for my Typhoon story. Until next time!
