Midnight run in the TYPHOON

Typhoon kicks the Monkey's ASS

I'm alive & we're all doing good here after the latest Super Typhoon kicked our asses - sorry to my sister for not being able to get any emails out until today, but we just recently got power back on and the roads cleared - so this is the first chance I've had to update things here.

Got power back day before yesterday, and the clean up's almost done here now - but this SUPER Typhoon rolled in farther south than we thought, and we got hit hard - trees & power lines down everywhere; some roads in Madrejos were nearly impassable, at the top of our Island.

The evening of the Typhoon, Coca Cola Steve & myself got into his truck and took a run up the coast while it was still ok here, and by the time we got to Madrejos the shit was hitting the fan, with big seas slamming into the tiny shacks along the coastline, and all boats comming to & going from the Island were cancelled, and just started up again yesterday.

In town they had no power, and I had to roam around a bit looking for a load for my phone, and I did find a flooded out place that was open - but I brought a GoreTex raincoat & baseball cap with me & stayed reasonably dry.
...the main strip was like a sene from Night of the Living Dead - no one out, totally BLACK - totally deserted.

So we get back in the truck (actually a type of mini van, a Mitsubishi Adventure) and head back down to check out Bantayan Town, and it's the same deal - nearly deserted, and rightly so - the winds were massive and quite dangerous to be out in (yeah, I know: 'what the hell were WE doing out?')

Steve wanted to stop at Burger Junction for a Monkey Burger (they say it's "beef" but we know it's questionable at best, and monkey actually tastes pretty OK) - and yes, BJ was actually OPEN during all this chaos; the 2 waitresses there carrying on with business as usual - incredible.

2 Monkey burgers later, we head out to Banelco, the Island's power supplier, to get a better grip on what's going on (no one had power, just those with generators) and we roll in the driveway & hear a gunshot-type blast right beside my right ear, then I see a bright flash right out side my window, and I bring my hands up to cover my face as a transformer blew out in a huge blast, about 8 meters from the car!

That's when we knew we had to get the hell out of Dodge & back to our place by 8pm and we all stayed together playing cards by candlelight on the 2nd floor, as I looked out over the roaring seas, and together with what the winds were doing (gusting to over 150Kilometers PH at that point) I was getting a bit scared, and I'll tell you the truth, nothing much really manages to scare me these days.

I got a phone text out to webmaster Steve Griffith in San Francisco, and asked him to call my Family in the USA & tell them we were ok for the time being, and asked him to keep me updated on where this Monster was moving, cause our SAT TV in the main building was out of course.

Once the tables on the patio started blowing around in the winds, we turned them over, and glasses & bottles were just crashing all over the place, and the sounds the trees were making, crashing onto out roof was defining.

I decided to try to make the trek out to my cottage, and a blast of wind came around the corner & nearly knocked me over (I'm 220lbs) and that's what scared me, but I managed to make it out when I realized I had water inside the cottage, all over the floor (I'd forgotten to break down the laptop workstation), so I spent some time packing it all away & getting the power bricks up from the floor, etc.

As I went to bed at 10pm, I put foam earplugs into my ears - the sound of the trees & winds smashing into my cottage actually sounded like King Kong was jumping on my place; one of the scariest sounds I've ever heard, I swear to God.

I was really worried about Mama Helen's little bamboo shack on the beach, but I couldn't get out to check on them even if I wanted to, as it was too dangerous to go out again with trees & power lines falling everywhere, and earlier we just barely managed to make it back to our place.

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/1600s f/3.5 at 14.0mm iso200

Mama Helen's house; this Typhoon ripeed its roof off and until its repaired, they have no protection from the elements

(if anyone would like to help out with repair costs, please contact me - this wonderfull family is really in dire straights now and in serious need of help, and I do not have the funds to assist them with this)

The Typhoon also destroyed their food supplies (fish they sell for income, & Rice)...I just replaced the Rice yesterday with another 26Kilos, as I discovered last night when I saw the children sitting outside huddled together, and found they had nothing to eat, and nothing to cook.

I immediately took one of the sisters with me to the Mercado & bought 26kg in a sack - they had clean water to cook it in, so I was able to breathe a sigh of relief that I was able to check on them as soon as the roads were cleared.

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/200s f/3.5 at 14.0mm iso200

PJAMES