My friend and I watched the news of the typhoon travelling the world, from
Hong Kong,
which is quite small, so a typhoon is likely to affect travellers, especially if the airport is shut
The Philippines,
Manila is on the north island of Luzon (hit by about twenty typhoons a year) but two northern towns include one with rice terraces, and the 2018 problem is north of these two so unlikely to affect your holidays or business trip.
North Carolina in the USA. The USA is huge, but 90% of Americans don't have passports and many drive, so if you live on the East Coast you are like to have driven through North Carolina.
My friend went home to her husband in the Hong Kong drama. She sent me text updates. How was she doing?
Answer
She lives at the top of a building. She said the whole buildings swayed for hours in the (howling) wind.
Her IKEA bookcase tipped the books out. She now has all the books in box on the floor.
If you were on the ground floor with flood waters likely to come in, you would remove items from the floor and put them higher. However, with an earthquake or winds shaking your buildings, you want items off shelves so they don't fly around and injure you or fall and break.
What you learn from one disaster is not necessarily applicable to another. You have to learn from other's mistakes.
She said, "Could I run? No. The whole building was swaying."
LIFTS OUT OF BOUNDS
You don't take the lifts in an emergency. If the electrics go, you could be stuck with shut doors, or stuck between floors. Even if you get out in the end, it's no fun. Worry. Will they come to help you? No food or toilets for hours.
READING & ENTERTAINMENT
No entertainment, either. Wasted time. I am reminded of Oscar Wilde's ironic remark. "I always travel with my diary, so I have something sensational to read on the train."
I always have a language course in my pocket. Stuck somewhere for eight hours? I can be eight hours through a one lesson a week course in another language. At least it takes your mind off worrying.
FOOD STOCKS
She said they did not eat breakfast until after lunch time. Yes, that's the advantage of staying home rather than running onto the street or taken transport off. You have food and toilets. Phones. First aid. TV and radio for entertainment and information, news of what is to come, or if it's over and safe to venture out.
So her husband could go off to work. She could cook breakfast and tidy up the mess. From his point of view, having her home was an advantage. Who is looking after who in your marriage? Do you want your family with you as a team.
SENDING FAMILY AWAY - KINDERTRANSPORT
Would you want to send your family off to a safer place? If you travel to Europe you will see the memorials to the children on the Kindertransport just before WWII, children sent to safety by their parents.
Kindertransport statue to see at Liverpool Street station, London, England. Credits below.
TITANIC
I remember the couple on the Titanic, the co-owner of Macy's in New York and his wife. They had been together all their lives and wanted to be together until the end. Others want their spouse and children to survive them and carry on the family line and remember them and perhaps arrange memorials. I think about the Titanic's passengers when I am in New York and look at the Guggenheim or Macy's, also in Canada, and in Ireland which now has a huge titanic exhibition in the dockyard where Titanic was built.
STAYING BEHIND AND PLANNING
Install shutters or protection for windows, or protect with curtains and blinds and heavy duty plywood. In Singapore front doors and back doors have ironwork covers designed to let you open your front door and let in the breeze.
Emergency Supplies
Food and Drink for three days
Medicine
PRECAUTIONS & CLEAR-UP
If rain or flood water has filled pots and bowls outside or inside, empty the water to stop the breeding of mosquitoes.
Useful websites
BBC hits on hurricane preparedness:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45521927
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
| Description |
English: Kindertransport monument at Liverpool Street Station. A project established by the Association of Jewish Refugees, it pays tribute to those Britons who aided the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazi persecution which led onto the holocaust.
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| Date | 26 March 2011 |
| Source | Own work - http:lifeinmagapixels.com |
| Author | Wjh31 |
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