When a typhoon heads towards the Philippines it changes name, so to Hagiput we will add "Ruby" for PI. Hagiput is a PI word, but they change the name anyway.
It was a dark and stormy night. Just as soon as the winds picked up, the power went out. But I give Yap a lot of credit for being prepared. The have a disaster plan and an incident command and command post. I had to call him once as I was the relay between our shelters and anything they needed.
We had 7 shelters opened on the island, 3 manned by Public Health (PH). The other four were maneedby the Community Health Centers. I stayed at the hospital as the second doctor on call as well as a resource for the PH shelters. (The other Peace Corps volunteers were confined to a hotel). We packed boxes of supplies for each center and had three volunteers located there, including one site for the 5 boats of "visitors". People also took refuge in the wide halls of the hospital, a good place to stay out of the heavy winds and rain. It was exciting. We went through all the phases of heavy winds, rain, that lull in the middle, then more heavy rains and winds.
Where I live most of our damage was due to flooding. Water crashed over the causeways and broke the windows and doors of the O'Keefe Hotel right on the water. We also lost edges from the park and many trees went down. The southern part took a big hit as houses were flattened. But everyone made it. No casualties at the hospital or the shelters.
The beginning of the storm. We were expecting the arrival around 9 PM, but it hit us much earlier - late afternoon. No one thinks twice about going home early or not coming in to work. Good thing we don't have snow storms here.
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This banana tree survived but its leaves were shredded. Look through the leave to see a hut on stilts on the shore. It was flooded. The storm hit at high tide, a big problem for the people along the lagoon.
Wind.
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And more wind.
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Sounds so frightening. But it looks like you handled the storms quite well.
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