Typhoon Fung-Wong Video
Typhoon Fung-Wong, Part II from MJ Klein on Vimeo.
Archive for the ‘Typhoon’
Minor Disaster Averted
Please bear with us while we are still trying to get our blog back to normal. My Nikon D80 has been in the shop for parts of 3 weeks to fix a simple CCD bad pixel re-mapping, which is taking forever! Without my Nikon, I feel little compulsion for blogging, you understand.
Unless you’ve been under a rock you know that there is another typhoon bearing down on Taiwan. This thing is a full day away, and yet is dumping a fair amount of rain on us already. Last night about 01:00 (AM) the drain in the first floor kitchen started to backflow, dumping water up into the kitchen. As you recall, the last time that happened our living room was under a few centimeters of water. This time however, I was ready, for I had purchased a submersible pump the previous week while shopping at B&Q.
Dangerous Typhoon FENGSHEN (FRANK) now over Metro Manila-Bulacan
A dangerous typhoon is approaching Taiwan. From the looks of things, it will sneak around the west side and hit our most populous areas - with no protection from the mountains!
Bushman’s Typhoon Blog: Typhoon FENGSHEN (FRANK) now over Metro Manila-Bulacan [Update #007]
+ FORECAST OUTLOOK: FENGSHEN is expected to pass over Bulacan around 8-9 AM
this morning before moving into Angeles-Pampanga area on or before noontime
today. It shall be over Zambales this afternoon.The sudden Northerly turn of Fengshen was due to the long-awaited weakening
of the high pressure steering ridge located over Taiwan which was supposed
to weaken yesterday..and the development of a peripheral steering ridge
southeast of Fengshen or just to the east of Mindanao.
Above is a chart predicting the probabilities (in percent) that Typhoon FENGSHEN will pass within 120 km of Taiwan area during the 72 hours starting at 2008/06/22 18 UTC.
Please take the necessary precautionary measures!
Typhoon Krosa: We Got Lucky
Photos by MJ Klein
The wind howled like I have never heard it in my life. The windows held, but water seeped in through microscopic cracks in the wall, and seams around the windows. Ominous sounds emanated from various structures in the neighborhood as the high winds exposed shoddy construction methods and materials. Debris flew through the air creating a very real hazard to life and property. Then, almost as suddenly as it began, it was over….
This is our neighbor’s pidgen coop on the morning after. Notice the brown spot to rear of the property (right side of photo). The coop used to sit on that brown spot. It got blown down and over the fence and into the adjoining property, destroying one of the water tanks in the process.
I heard a crash and went up on the roof to see what had happened. I had tied down our picnic tables so I knew they were OK. Nevertheless, one of the tables was actually airborne, held down by the lanyards I had installed to hold down the umbrellas. But the tables weren’t the problem. This ridiculously stupid pidgen coop had blown over and was resting at about a 45 degree angle on the fence separating the next property. Of course, I ran and told the owner, who of course did nothing about it. My offer to help him tie it down with nylon cord was met with indifference as he told me it was already tied down and wouldn’t fly away.
I am just so tired of being right. My wife thinks I’m silly because I always want to inform the neighbors of things happening that I would appreciate knowing. This experience has reinforced the fact that people don’t seem to care about anything, especially danger. My guess is that this guy will be whining about having to pay money to fix his neighbor’s destroyed water tank, which was completely avoidable.
We had lost one of the covers on our own water tanks during the last typhoon. Now they are a matching set. I picked up the cover across the street in the parking lot. The retaining wire on the tank held though (on the right hand tank, visible in the large size photo). The winds were so strong that the force broke the weld on the cover handle and literally tore it off. Let me tell you, when I went up to the roof to check things out, it felt like I was being sandblasted by the rain!
While up on the roof checking things out this morning, I noticed 2 new mountains that I never knew existed since I hadn’t seen them before. The one cool thing about typhoons is that they really clear the air.
But, they trash the streets. Literally.
What else can you do but drag downed branches to the roadside?
This sign post was bent over like a corn stalk in a crop circle. I’m officially impressed!
The mud pattern shows that a respectable volume of water had flowed down this street.
And the sewer system confirms that indeed a large volume of water had been absorbed into the system and was overflowing. In this shot, the water at the top of the photo is going out from the sewer system and not draining into it. The water level is above the grating.
The real estate office lost their sign, which blew over the top of this building and landed behind it, next to our car. The sign then blew all the way down to the end of this street. Incredible as that sounds, the wind took it away like a leaf. I watched with fascination as the sign scaled the fence shown along side this building (easier to see on the large size) The fabric banners below are tattered.
I am inclined to think that maybe I would take stuff like that down, but typhoons are so commonplace in Taiwan that people don’t expect much to happen.
Our otherwise lovely street took a beating.
Most of the trees on this street are permanently malformed by high winds.
Someone had been busy removing all the broken branches and dragging them to this empty lot. Many of the branches have been sawn off.
It takes a strong wind to do this to a tree.
Same pile of debris from the reverse angle. This used to be a short cut to get to Shao-hui’s place.
This tree stands in mute testimony to the power of Krosa. It could have been a lot worse….
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technorati tags:Taiwan, Hukou, Krosa, typhoon, storm, wind, rain, damage
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My Typhoon Story Makes Front Page on Now Public
There are many people following this dangerous typhoon that is going to make landfall sometime on Saturday. Now Public is a civil journalism site that encourages group participation. Here is the link to the story that I wrote, entitled:
Approaching Typhoon Krosa Dumps Rain on Taiwan
Approaching Typhoon Krosa Dumps Rain on Taiwan | The News is NowPublic.com
I took this shot early this morning. The upper layer is relatively clear with blue sky showing, but the lower layers are rapidly moving and thick with rain clouds.
In the distance is the Taiwan Straight. I would not want to be out on a boat for the next few days!
This graphic is constantly being updated by the forecasters. All you have to do is refresh your browser to see the latest track.
technorati tags:Taiwan, typhoon, Krosa, Ineng
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Approaching Typhoon Krosa Dumps Rain on Taiwan
Photos by MJ Klein
Today I was sitting outside at Shao-hui’s, minding my own business, when the sky opened up and dumped rain on us like can only happen when a typhoon is approaching. The suddenness and intensity of the rainfall caught many people off guard as they were walking or riding scooters.
Dangerous Category 5 Typhoon is Heading for Taiwan
This blog has more readership than our typhoon blog, so I am posting a notice here to make sure the maximun number of readers see it:
+ FORECAST OUTLOOK: KROSA is expected to continue moving NW’ly towards Northern Taiwan throughout the weekend. The 3 to 5-day forecast shows KROSA becoming an extremely catastrophic Category 5 Super Typhoon with winds reaching 260 km/hr tomorrow morning, Oct 05. The eye shall reach the northeastern coast of Taiwan Sunday morning with a sudden slow in its NW track. It shall pass very close to Taipei, Taiwan Sunday after- noon, Oct 7 (approx 3 PM HK Time), with a close distance of 55 km to the east. Upon its closest approach to Taiwan, KROSA shall be downgra- ded to a Category 4 (220 kph) Typhoon and shall continue losing strength as it bears down the coast of SE China on Monday & Tuesday (Oct 8-9) due to land interaction, increasing wind shear and dry air over mainland China.
Please note the use of the words “extremely catastrophic” in this forecast!
You can subsribe to the typhoon blog and get updates in your RSS reader too.
technorati tags:typhoon, Krosa, Ineng, Cat5, powerful
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Typhoon Fever!
Photos by MJ Klein
I grew up in Florida. When I was a kid, Hurricane Donna scored a direct hit on St. Petersburg, Florida where my family lived. From Wikipedia:
Donna holds the record for retaining “major hurricane” status (category 3 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) in the Atlantic Basin for the longest period of time on record. For nine days, September 2 to September 11, Donna consistently had sustained winds of at least 115 mph. From the moment it became a tropical depression to when it dissipated after becoming an extratropical storm, Donna roamed the Atlantic from August 29 to September 14, a total of 17 days. While crossing the Atlantic Donna briefly achieved Category 5 strength. After its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, Donna moved north of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola before crossing the Bahamas. The storm made its first Florida landfall in the community of Marathon, centered on Key Vaca in the middle Florida Keys. At this time, Donna was a Category 4 hurricane with estimated maximum sustained winds of 140 mph and gusts of up to 180 mph, with a minimum central pressure of 27.46 inHg (930 mbar). A storm surge of 13 feet was also reported.[1] The storm crossed into the Gulf of Mexico and its course shifted northward. Donna paralleled the southwest coast of Florida until it made a second Florida landfall between Naples and Fort Myers, again as a Category 4 hurricane. After crossing the Florida peninsula, it continued and moved back out into the Atlantic Ocean near Daytona Beach. Donna headed up the East Coast, and made another landfall at Topsail Beach, North Carolina. It then finished its trip by heading into New England, with a final landfall across Long Island, New York. Donna, unlike Hurricane Charley which followed a similar track in 2004, was a slow-moving storm. Donna dumped 10 to 12 inches of rain in the southern half of Florida, along with about seven inches in the northern half. The three weeks prior to Donna’s landfall produced a 6-7 inch surplus in rain before the hurricane hit, exacerbating the problem.
Hurricane Donna - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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