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There was a Category 5 Typhoon in in the Philippines where I am last week. The power was out and there was no electricity, refrigeration, or internet for a week

by wyclif 5y ago

There was a Category 5 Typhoon in in the Philippines where I am last week. The power was out and there was no electricity, refrigeration, or internet for a week. One of the transformers in my neibourhood blew out and got destroyed, and at 6pm on Christmas Eve they replaced it and we finally had power! I'm a software developer with a wife and two kids and we have a lot to be thankful for. We survided COVID-19 and a Category 5 hurricane.

wiz21c 5y ago
Totally OT, but what is it like to be inside a Category 5 hurricane ?
- ausudhz 5y ago
  Inside you feel nothing, is at the edges the problem
- wyclif 5y ago
  It's just "batten down the hatches" time, to use a nautical analogy, and you close, tighten up, or nail down anything on the outside of your house or in your yard that you can. Then you lie low and wait for the worst. There were very high winds (120+mph) and rain so hard that I could barely see my hand in front of my face, and lots of downed trees and flooding. I've never seen so much crap lying on the ground before when it was over. We didn't have any home damage because our house is made of concrete. But a lot of Filipinos lost their homes because they tend to build with light materials (bamboo, wood, corrugated tin).
- ohyeshedid 5y ago
  Not OP, but: Ancient oak trees, with canopies the size of houses, gingerly cartwheeling down the street, until a wind shift sends it rolling through the neighbors(empty) house. Watching their entire lives evaporate into projectiles that peppered everything downwind. Modern garage door being sucked out, thrown over the house, to impale itself into the house behind it, evaporating it a few seconds later. Large trucks, turning side-over-side, like logs rolling down a hill. A cast iron bench being launched like a rocket into a neighbors window, turning the contents of that room, window, frame, and window air conditioner into a debris field; something from with-which punched a hole through a stop sign. The roof of my house being lifted 6-10 inches directly upward, rotated about 30 degrees, and slammed back down. Like a sonic boom went off 10ft over-head. Front support column being blown through my living room window, glass embedding itself into the walls opposite. The physics of your everyday environment radically and violently change, you see things that you can't see anywhere else. I was on a few drugs while everything was going on, and there's so much more, but none of that was what really messed me up. I don't know if other people have ever seen something that their brain couldn't understand at all. Like all context does not exist, this is entirely new to human experience kinda thing: My house had a big ditch behind it, then a set of train tracks that were about a foot lower than my land grade, then another big ditch, then a state park. A very large state park that was miles and miles of ancient oaks, swamps, etc. I walked out behind my house when the storm cleared, and I froze because I couldn't understand what I was seeing: Imagine an eldritch-old forest, you see it everyday, and now where an impenetrable wall of wood was, is now white horizon. It had been flattened, or erased. My eyes were seeing the white horizon while my brain was struggling with my memory and anticipation. It's the most disassociated I've ever felt without advanced chemistry.
  - wyclif 5y ago
    The roof of my house being lifted 6-10 inches directly upward, rotated about 30 degrees, and slammed back down I saw almost the exact same thing last week. One of the neighbours lost their roof and when it blew off it looked like levitation for a few minutes. Then it shifted about 100 feet and slammed to the ground.
jiux 5y ago
Glad to hear recovery being made… this typhoon was a bad one.

by wyclif 5y ago

wiz21c 5y ago

Totally OT, but what is it like to be inside a Category 5 hurricane ?

ausudhz 5y ago
Inside you feel nothing, is at the edges the problem
wyclif 5y ago
It's just "batten down the hatches" time, to use a nautical analogy, and you close, tighten up, or nail down anything on the outside of your house or in your yard that you can. Then you lie low and wait for the worst. There were very high winds (120+mph) and rain so hard that I could barely see my hand in front of my face, and lots of downed trees and flooding. I've never seen so much crap lying on the ground before when it was over. We didn't have any home damage because our house is made of concrete. But a lot of Filipinos lost their homes because they tend to build with light materials (bamboo, wood, corrugated tin).
ohyeshedid 5y ago
Not OP, but: Ancient oak trees, with canopies the size of houses, gingerly cartwheeling down the street, until a wind shift sends it rolling through the neighbors(empty) house. Watching their entire lives evaporate into projectiles that peppered everything downwind. Modern garage door being sucked out, thrown over the house, to impale itself into the house behind it, evaporating it a few seconds later. Large trucks, turning side-over-side, like logs rolling down a hill. A cast iron bench being launched like a rocket into a neighbors window, turning the contents of that room, window, frame, and window air conditioner into a debris field; something from with-which punched a hole through a stop sign. The roof of my house being lifted 6-10 inches directly upward, rotated about 30 degrees, and slammed back down. Like a sonic boom went off 10ft over-head. Front support column being blown through my living room window, glass embedding itself into the walls opposite. The physics of your everyday environment radically and violently change, you see things that you can't see anywhere else. I was on a few drugs while everything was going on, and there's so much more, but none of that was what really messed me up. I don't know if other people have ever seen something that their brain couldn't understand at all. Like all context does not exist, this is entirely new to human experience kinda thing: My house had a big ditch behind it, then a set of train tracks that were about a foot lower than my land grade, then another big ditch, then a state park. A very large state park that was miles and miles of ancient oaks, swamps, etc. I walked out behind my house when the storm cleared, and I froze because I couldn't understand what I was seeing: Imagine an eldritch-old forest, you see it everyday, and now where an impenetrable wall of wood was, is now white horizon. It had been flattened, or erased. My eyes were seeing the white horizon while my brain was struggling with my memory and anticipation. It's the most disassociated I've ever felt without advanced chemistry.
- wyclif 5y ago
  The roof of my house being lifted 6-10 inches directly upward, rotated about 30 degrees, and slammed back down I saw almost the exact same thing last week. One of the neighbours lost their roof and when it blew off it looked like levitation for a few minutes. Then it shifted about 100 feet and slammed to the ground.

jiux 5y ago

Glad to hear recovery being made… this typhoon was a bad one.