Taichung - Typhoon Saola

One day before my flight to Taiwan for a business trip, I decided to check out the weather just to be sure I do not need to bring additional clothes. To my surprise, what I saw on the weather forecast website then was a typhoon warning on the week of my trip. I verified it on a second weather forecast website and didnt see the same typhoon warning. So I thought that it was probably a wrong piece of information. I set off for the trip. I arrived in Taichung in the late afternoon and was in the hotel to check out my mail. As my colleague has not yet arrived, I decided to do a little walk and visit the night market in the evening. Weather was nice and soon I put the typhoon warning out of my mind.

Local specialty - Fried chicken cutlet

I even settled my dinner while touring the night market and buying famous local specialty food along the way. We started the next day at work and that was when the bad news dawned upon us. There was a possible delay in the agenda as there is a typhoon warning the next day. So the weather forecast was right!! I wonder why I did not believe it. And this would be the first time in my life facing an impending typhoon. I did not know what to expect.

That very night, during dinner at the restaurant, the winds and the rainfall started. Typhoon Saola is arriving. It didnt look and sound so scary at first. Just heavy rain and wind but i noticed that the wind was warm. As the night progress, back in the hotel, I can hear the wind howling outside. It did not feel so bad inside the hotel. However, the next day when we were out and on the way to work, we saw fallen branches, broken glass/ pots... fallen road signs... I could imagine what a disaster it was the night before..

It was still raining heavily... I learnt about the term "typhoon national holiday". It was declared a public holiday for Taichung that very day due to the typhoon. We decided to take the risk to go to work because my colleague had an "important" appointment for that weekend and he did not want to change his flight. The roads were empty. I am not sure if I should be glad to know that. But most people were indoors, and we were one of the few cars on the roads. However, it was because of this we arrive way before our targetted time and we could start our work early.

Heavy floods and damaged traffic signs

As it was a national holiday, the office was actually not really operating. Only a few of the locals and us were there. We had to forgo also some items on our agenda. However we were glad that things come to an end and we could get ready to go home. I had the flight the following day. Which according to the locals, is better to fly the following day when Typhoon Saola will leave Taiwan and head north. However for my colleague, there is still an uncertainty. Due to the floods, it was unclear how much time is required to get to the airport and if he will be able to get there at all.

We bade each other goodbye and soon he is on his way home. I returned back to the hotel and turn on the tv. There was no where I could go anyway. All the news were about Typhoon Saola and the damage she caused. Bad floods were everywhere, especially in the easter side of Taiwan. Crops were damaged. Houses need repair. People were trapped. Some lives were taken. I switched around the channels... On one channel, they were showing the movement of Typhoon Saola from the time she entered Taiwan, moved out of Taiwan and back and her current location and forecast movement. It was a lot of information, but no good information. The only good news seems to be that Typhoon Saola should be gone by the next morning.

I woke up the next day, to find a raining day again. I did a quick check with the reception and check if the roads to the airport are good. After breakfast, the weather seem to clear up quite a bit. The rain stopped. I booked the car for the afternoon to get to the airport. However I did not stop thinking of the worst situation until I was on the plane.

It was until when the plane took off, and I could see that I am above the clouds that I realize I am finally on my way home. Back to the arms of my disaster free homeland.

PS: The last I heard from my colleague - his plane was cancelled and he was stranded at the airport. I did not have the chance to talk to him since then.