Monday, October 05, 2009

Storm is Past and Life is Back to "Normal"


The picture on the right is of Typhoon Melor on its way toward Japan. We are thankful that it completely missed Guam and caused only minor damage on Saipan. We are praying that it doesn't do any harm to Japan either.  When a storm like this threatens Guam we always have the dilemma about how much should we prepare and when should we start doing it. One time we didn't have an opportunity to prepare (we were off island) and our completely unprotected house came through typhoon Chata'an without too much damage. Chata'an took our trampoline out of the backyard and gave us a house full of water which was squeegied out with no damage. We thought we had prepared well for Paka in 1997 and pretty much lost almost everything we had. Of course we had a metal roofed house then. This time we kept an eye on the storm using the various internet sites. We do the basic stuff early and then make the decision to put up the typhoon shutters at the last possible minute. I know I can get them up in less than an hour even in high winds. We have put them up a couple times and then had no typhoon but I guess that's better than the other way around. :) Of course, with the school we have to err on the side of safety and we have plenty of guys to put up typhoon shutters on campus anyway. So, we are thankful for another miss, but we remain watchful.

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