{"id":6463,"date":"2017-09-17T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=6463"},"modified":"2017-09-15T10:23:14","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T17:23:14","slug":"notes-on-a-typhoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/notes-on-a-typhoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes on a Typhoon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

photo courtesy AusAID<\/p><\/div>\n

Looking through some old journals, I found some jottings on a typhoon.<\/p>\n

It was October 11, 1989. Our three daughters were in college or grad school in the United States. Eugene and I were living in Manila in an apartment on Roxas Boulevard, walking distance from Asian Development Bank where he worked.<\/p>\n

I must have been standing on our balcony, looking out at the storm and its effects and writing my impressions in a journal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Roxas Blvd. from our apartment<\/p><\/div>\n

Here\u2019s my journal entry:<\/p>\n

High winds, not too much rain so far. Electricity out. The roar of the building\u2019s generator. The insistent swish of wind in the trees, gusting to a low, rolling bellow. Leaves lifting from the ground, rushing past our sixteenth floor window. <\/em><\/p>\n

A metal reflecting surface taped to a clothes rack on a balcony across from us comes loose and twangs and rustles in the wind. Shook foil. Palm trees bending, off-balance, their leaves pushed to one side, showing their coconuts. <\/em><\/p>\n

Leaning antennas, long, draping TV cables, clay pots broken and scattered. Corrugated metal roofs ripped off in jagged, irregular pieces.<\/em><\/p>\n

Broken tree branches, their white, virginal wood open to the elements. Branches, coconuts, leaves strewn around the old lady\u2019s garden. Lots of work for her gardener tomorrow. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

old lady’s garden before typhoon<\/p><\/div>\n

Sign boards and canopies blown down. A man leaving a jeep covers his head with his jacket. Four men walk the service road looking for things to salvage. They find an antenna and cart it off. <\/em><\/p>\n

Our curtains alternately billow in and get sucked out.<\/em><\/p>\n

Later: The typhoon has passed. Out to the South China Sea, I suppose.<\/em><\/p>\n

I didn’t write anything about the aftermath. This one must not have hit Manila, or at least our part of town, hard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking through some old journals, I found some jottings on a typhoon. It was October 11, 1989. Our three daughters were in college or grad school in the United States. Eugene and I were living in Manila in an apartment on Roxas Boulevard, walking distance from Asian Development Bank where he worked. I must have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1340,148,1611],"tags":[1618,1027,1619,1620],"class_list":["post-6463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expatriate-life","category-philippines","category-storms","tag-journal-jottings","tag-manila-philippines","tag-roxas-boulevard","tag-typhoon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-1Gf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6449,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/remembering-typhoons-in-manila-and-port-vila\/","url_meta":{"origin":6463,"position":0},"title":"Remembering Typhoons in Manila and Port Vila","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"September 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Watching the coverage of the two devastating hurricanes in the US southeast the past couple of weeks made me think of some of the tropical cyclones I\u2019ve experienced. We don\u2019t have hurricanes in Washington State where I\u2019d lived all my life before we moved to the Philippines. So I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philippines"","block_context":{"text":"Philippines","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/philippines\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Cyclone_Vania_1_Imagicity_600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6055,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/when-familiar-landmarks-disappear\/","url_meta":{"origin":6463,"position":1},"title":"When Familiar Landmarks Disappear …","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"May 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I remember Harrison Street. If you asked me, I could draw you a detailed map of it. The first feature on my drawing would be the little hill in front of our house. The hill would be small enough that a seven-year-old, peddling with all her might, could ride\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Harrison-St.-bike-001-e1494705753727.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5947,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/journal-entries-on-a-coup-detat\/","url_meta":{"origin":6463,"position":2},"title":"Journal Jottings on a Coup d\u2019\u00e9tat","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"April 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I have stacks of steno notebooks, a.k.a., my journals. Writing in them has been my way of paying attention to the world around me and saving my observations for the future. In recent years I haven't been journaling much. On the other hand, I am making good use of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "books"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/journals-2-e1491353351810.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9844,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/the-seventh-coup-attempt\/","url_meta":{"origin":6463,"position":3},"title":"The Seventh Coup Attempt","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"March 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"You would think that after failing six times, the plotters would have given up. But they didn\u2019t. Maybe there\u2019s something about the excitement of the whole thing that appeals to certain people. Whatever their reasons were, the seventh coup attempt was the biggest and most deadly of them all. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "attempted coup"","block_context":{"text":"attempted coup","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/attempted-coup\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Manila-typhoon-001-e1504980172943.bmp","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6553,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/culture\/dont-forget-about-un-day-not-this-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":6463,"position":4},"title":"Don’t Forget about UN Day … Not This Year.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 For twenty-two years my late husband worked for an international organization, the Asian Development Bank. He and his colleagues, men and women from every continent except Antarctica, devoted themselves to the economic development of developing countries in Asia. As a result of his job, our family moved to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/UN-Day-MINS-2-001-e1477785740435.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/UN-Day-MINS-2-001-e1477785740435.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/UN-Day-MINS-2-001-e1477785740435.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5319,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/the-letters-my-mom-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":6463,"position":5},"title":"The Letters My Mom Saved.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 When we lived in the Philippines and later in Vanuatu, I wrote letters to my family every week. And every week after my parents read my letters, Mom filed them away. That\u2019s a lot of letters. Let\u2019s see, fifty-two weeks multiplied by twenty-two years \u2026 Hmm. That adds up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Grandma with T","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Grandma-and-T-001-e1467930842919.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6463"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6506,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6463\/revisions\/6506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}