Labor Day weekend! Three days to catch-up on stuff and write that email I’d been meaning to for too many weeks. Saturday-day I spent food shopping in my loaner car. Loaner because my car was getting its biannual JCI (Japanese Compulsory Insurance) This is a part inspection part insurance program that’s overly complicated. It involves an inspection and repair work if needed by yourself or a local garage and a stop at the Marine base for a final inspection and sticker. That option usually take a whole day. I opted to get my garage to do it for me. A little bit more costly but my time is valuable.

 

In Japan they never say no. It’s a cultural thing so when they said yes I could drop off the car late Friday morning; I thought they would have it ready in the PM. Silly me. They hadn’t even started: hence, the loaner car. So on my way home with my groceries I thought that perhaps I could exchange the load and trade cars. Not! It took another trip into town to get my car back. New CV boots and brakes…..$500 but good for two more years. And Oh yes, come back on Monday for the paperwork.

 

I got back just in time to call one of my contacts at the God-Squad. Don’t ask me why I’ve become chummy with most of our chaplains. Maybe the spotted someone that REALLY needed their help.  Well, the liturgical service plus Ray were supposed to go to the Southern part of the Island for Thai food. I called to check on arraignments and they chickened out because of the approaching Typhoon. Maybe they had advance information because Songda was a doozey.

 

By 7PM the winds picked up and we entered Typhoon Emergency status about an hour later. At 9PM I got an OFL indication on my anemometer (measures wind speed) I think it means Out of Freaking Limits or maybe Functional Limits. I looked that up in the instructions and it’s 125 mph (201 kmph). A few minutes later I stopped getting readings at all. At 3AM I was awakened or more rightly roused because the wind noise effectively prevents sleep as you know it. My UPS was beeping as it struggled to take over powering my computer as the electricity shut down.

 

No electricity means no water and no cooking. My water is now pumped to me from large storages tanks on the ground floor.The electricity was off for the duration of the storm. That’s 42 hours of sweating because tropical storms are not cold like North-Easterners. No water to wash down the uneaten cat food or flush the toilet or bathe and it got mildly ripe. The funny thing about these kinds of storms is that you don’t know how long they’ll hang around. So you don’t want to go through all your emergency supplies in the first few hours. Typhoons have been know to leave and do a 180 and return for seconds.

 

Songda stalled over the Island for an extended visit. I was lucky enough to have about 30 minutes in the eye. I took that opportunity to venture outside and check out the anemometer the pole holding it snapped in two. Schedule 80 PVC is sturdy stuff but not that sturdy. A quick relocation to the TV antenna mast was accomplished. On the way back to my apartment I not another Typhoon casualty. A small bird was apparently flung into the house with enough force to kill the poor thing. A few minutes later the wind speed was 112 mph.

 

Typhoons are exciting as much as they are boring. When you loose electricity there isn’t much to do but read. Reading is hampered by the fact that you put up the storm shutters that block out almost all the light. The Typhoon easily darkens the sky enough so that reading is often a losing battle. I wisely invested in a portable DVD player originally for the long flights and it been a boon in storms.

 

At hour 36 I needed to do something to cool down so I stood on the porch in the rain in my shorts and got inspiration. Minutes later I had a towel and robe by the door and was again standing on the porch but this time with a bar of soap. People pay a lot of money for a shower that stings and I was getting it for free.

 

Sometime that second evening we had a Tsunami from the earthquake up north. It was only 3 feet but it seemed fitting and hardly was notched in the tempest tossed sea

 

We entered Recovery at 5PM on the second day.  That means Emergency vehicles only for GI’s and business as usual for the Japanese. I gambled and took off for friends at Kadena that promised a hot meal and a real shower. Five minutes from the front gate we entered Storm Watch conditions meaning crisis over and back to the routine.

 

When I got home at 9PM the power was back on. I was treated to the chaos that comes from two days of darkness in the house. Lessons learned…... Waterless hand cleaner!

 

Details are forthcoming but through all of this I’ve been in a cam-walker, an ankle brace to stabilize a torn Achilles Tendon. Spin Class -Ugh. Good news is that I saw my orthopod today and he says I can wean off it in one more week. That’s a week off for god behavior from the six he promised so I am making progress.

 

Songda was Cat 4 when it hit us. Winds were estimated at 170mph. We got lord knows how much rain but I heard we had 10 inches in 3 hours. Take that Frances!!!!.

 

PS we also had a Typhoon on the 4th of July. I need a vacation.

 

 

Ray