Typhoon Fanapi is well and truly here

The wind woke me up at about 3am Sunday morning. Then came the rains. Then came the weather report on Tealit and  the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. Typhoon Fanapi hit this island and would work its way west to China by 2am Monday morning. In the mean time however, we brace ourselves inside our apartment, hooked to seasons of Entourage and the odd break with some Nat Geo HD television and crackers.

I took some video on my camera around midday.

That was before the storm worsened. Now it is 7pm and the exposed southern part of our apartment is being rocked by the wind and rain. We have exhausted our meagre supply of towels soaking up the uninvited water. I am thankful for a supply of power and water (touch wood) unlike some of the other areas of Taiwan.

Our county, Kaohsiung, has received at least 490mm of rainfall since the morning, while poor Pingtung has received 690mm causing landslides and evacuations.

Schools have already been cancelled for tomorrow. The typhoon is set to leave the island by sunrise, but that does not mean that everyone can leave the safety of their dwellings. Rain will continue even though the winds will disperse. This is a level 3 typhoon (5 is the worst), meaning there is flooding and road damage, so things will not get back to normal for a little while.

There have been three deaths in the northern part of the island. Two of those occured in the county of Taoyuan, where I went with a school group during the week to a centre for the disabled while on a camp in Longtan. It is more than a day off work tomorrow, but a terrible natural disaster.