After the event...
Yesterday's weather was bad....how bad was really only apparent this morning when I stepped out of my still 'electricity-less' building and surveyed the scene...the first thought that went through my head was "Bloody hell, it looks like a typhoon ripped through here"...second thought was "Yes, you are an idiot!". For a complete round up of typhoon blogs from Manila...MLQ3 has the best list
Wack Wack Road was covered in shredded trees, an entire wall seems to have disappeared, I always wondered what they were hiding...now I know..., the flood waters of yesterday evening had disappeared leaving in their wake dry rivulets of sand and earth, it looked a like a beach as the tide goes out.
As I walked down to Shaw to get a taxi I thought I was seeing a mirage...the longest queue of taxis I have ever seen...all sitting empty...I fairly bolted down the road in case they disappeared...and then I realised, the queue - which stretched from Wack Wack road, round the corner onto Shaw and almost back to Edsa was of LPG taxis waiting to refuel... My usual MO is that I stand on the side of Shaw going the opposite way to EDSA - for two reasons - firstly there are more empty taxis going that way than towards EDSA and secondly, Shaw is horrific to cross. However, this morning I noticed that someone seems to have painted a lovely new Zebra crossing across the road just where I normally stand (I could swear blind it wasn't there yesterday morning), it felt like what I imagined it felt like to stand behind Moses as the Red Sea parted. So, I decided to give it a whirl...I stepped out on the crossing and amazingly enough the traffic stopped....and I made it to the other side with nary a bumper brush. Obviously typhoons achieve the strangest things...
To be honest, I just want my electricity back...cats and candles don't mix well...particularly stupid cats of which Chairman Mao is a prime example...he already has one singed whisker! Classic headline of the day is Arroyo orders services restored immediately. Obviously King Canute is in town!
There is no denying that yesterday was a bad storm, the media seems undecided as to whether it was the worst typhoon to hit Manila or The Philippines in 11 years. However, bad as it was, there is really no reason for the amount of damage to infrastructure that occured...roofs shouldn't be coming off, the bill boards shouldn't be there in the first place - surely the results of this storm should help get shot of these things soon (they are incredibly distracting for drivers and really are blots on the landscape) - breaking news at the moment tells me that GMA is going to issue an order regulating billboards. Regulate them...?? Ban the damn things.
A selection of other typhoon damage pictures from Sky Newshere
The PDI's collection of typhoon news here - with Manila bloggers getting a special mention
And finally, in case slept through this one....there's another one on the way!
Wack Wack Road was covered in shredded trees, an entire wall seems to have disappeared, I always wondered what they were hiding...now I know..., the flood waters of yesterday evening had disappeared leaving in their wake dry rivulets of sand and earth, it looked a like a beach as the tide goes out.
As I walked down to Shaw to get a taxi I thought I was seeing a mirage...the longest queue of taxis I have ever seen...all sitting empty...I fairly bolted down the road in case they disappeared...and then I realised, the queue - which stretched from Wack Wack road, round the corner onto Shaw and almost back to Edsa was of LPG taxis waiting to refuel... My usual MO is that I stand on the side of Shaw going the opposite way to EDSA - for two reasons - firstly there are more empty taxis going that way than towards EDSA and secondly, Shaw is horrific to cross. However, this morning I noticed that someone seems to have painted a lovely new Zebra crossing across the road just where I normally stand (I could swear blind it wasn't there yesterday morning), it felt like what I imagined it felt like to stand behind Moses as the Red Sea parted. So, I decided to give it a whirl...I stepped out on the crossing and amazingly enough the traffic stopped....and I made it to the other side with nary a bumper brush. Obviously typhoons achieve the strangest things...
To be honest, I just want my electricity back...cats and candles don't mix well...particularly stupid cats of which Chairman Mao is a prime example...he already has one singed whisker! Classic headline of the day is Arroyo orders services restored immediately. Obviously King Canute is in town!
There is no denying that yesterday was a bad storm, the media seems undecided as to whether it was the worst typhoon to hit Manila or The Philippines in 11 years. However, bad as it was, there is really no reason for the amount of damage to infrastructure that occured...roofs shouldn't be coming off, the bill boards shouldn't be there in the first place - surely the results of this storm should help get shot of these things soon (they are incredibly distracting for drivers and really are blots on the landscape) - breaking news at the moment tells me that GMA is going to issue an order regulating billboards. Regulate them...?? Ban the damn things.
A selection of other typhoon damage pictures from Sky Newshere
The PDI's collection of typhoon news here - with Manila bloggers getting a special mention
And finally, in case slept through this one....there's another one on the way!
posted by Madame Chiang at 8:48 pm
1 Comments:
Glad you are safe and sound. Good luck with the cats and candles mix.
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