OK, I thought it rained a lot before. But now Typhoon Sinlaku has parked itself over Taiwan. The rain began early Saturday and has been falling non-stop. Some parts of the country have received up to 40 inches. It is driving, hammering rain with occasional flashes of lightning. Fortunately, Alicia's house is very well-built. Most newer houses here are constructed of concrete and steel just so they can withstand such a storm. We haven't even lost electricity or internet.
Of course, we took to the road yesterday to run some errands in spite of the storm. The creeks in the area, which are normally wide expanses of rock and sand with small streams running through were now raging rivers of black water, hundreds of yards across. Traffic was light, mostly cars and trucks, with an occasional plastic-wrapped soul plowing through the storm on a motorcycle. Huge front end loaders prowled the mountain roads quickly clearing away fallen rocks and mud.
On TV we saw reports of flooding and washed out roads in other parts of the country, but nothing so bad in our neighborhood. This was Moon Festival weekend in Taiwan. Resorts and restaurants lost millions because of the storm.
But the typhoon did not prevent us from enjoying another good meal. My in-laws treated us to lunch at a restaurant in their town that's famous for goat. Nothing like a nice bubbling pot of goat meat to break the chill of a gray and wet day.
No comments:
Post a Comment