Typhoon Craziness

The night of typhoon Songda turned out to be a bit crazy. Things were fine until around 10pm. Sure we had some rain, the winds were definitely picking up, and the power was on and off, but it was all expected. What was not expected is what happened between 10-12.

Around 10pm my neighbor and I were texting about the wind really getting her tarp. It was causing the tarp to make a lot of noise and flap. She ended up getting ahold of another neighbor and we all went out (yes, in the typhoon) and proceeded to take her tarp down. Luckily we did, when we did, because it ended up coming off in our hands - if we would have waited any longer the tarp (and hardware) could have 1. blown away or 2. broke her glass patio door. Okay, so we got that down and secured...back inside we all go. About 20 minutes later I hear a loud noise outside my bedroom window. Curious I took a look, and sure enough it was my tarp coming loose and waving in the wind. Oh crap, here we go again. I contacted the neighbors and we all go outside and take our tarp down. You would think since we just did this that things may go smoothly, but they didn't. As my one neighbor was on my roof detaching the tarp the wind picked up and caused a piece of hardware to cut open his hand. We proceeded to secure the tarp, and wrap up his hand. Alright that all was a bit crazy, can we call it a night? Not yet...while outside helping me with my tarp my immediate neighbor locks herself out of her house (with her three children inside). Oh boy! After banging on the doors trying to wake up the oldest kids (the youngest is at the patio door screaming for mommy to come inside but is too young to unlock the door), and before we result to breaking a window, I decided that maybe if I could get to the bedroom window the kids would hear me knocking. Sounds like a good idea, right? Here I go out my bedroom window (second story for all of you who don't know they layout), across the roof, over a gap, and onto her roof and to the window where I am banging and yelling for the kids! Another neighbor joins in the action and finds that one of the back windows is unlocked (thank goodness because the kids are NOT waking up), crawls through and unlocks the front door. I walk the roof tops and crawl back into my window. Our hearts were racing, tarps were coming down, doors were locked, people on roof tops and crawling through windows.....holy crap, did all that really just happen?!

Songda was the strongest typhoon I have been through since arriving on Oki. Luckily everyone was okay (the worst that happened is that one neighbor had to get two stitches and a splint for his hand, which granted kind of sucks but if that is the worst...). The clean up started yesterday morning and lasted almost all day. Songda came and conquered our little island and we all are very thankful that we didn't get directly hit (I think the eye of the storm was about 80 miles off coast), things could have been a lot worse. As for the neighborhood, we are just going to try to enjoy the rest of this Memorial Day weekend.

Oh, by the way, Craig arrives home today! YAY!!