It’s looking like we will probably have an unexpected day off tomorrow, thanks to Typhoon Morakot. It may be up to Cat 3 or 4 by the time it hits land; Taipei ought to be relatively safe because there are mountains all around us, but they are expecting extremely heavy rains. I hope so, because we need them. Though I don’t expect danger where I am, I wouldn’t want to drive in it. Fortunately the Taiwan government tends to be sensible about announcing office closures the night before – I have vivid memories of driving to work in a Houston hurricane and then having to drive home again, because NASA is terrible about making up its mind. (I worked for a contractor, but most of them followed NASA for closures.)
I hope there will not be much damage at Ilan, Su-ao, or anywhere closer to where the storm will hit, though; those places are much more vulnerable to severe weather. I’m also hoping there won’t be damage to our boats! They are in a boathouse in the Dong-shan River Park, right on the coast. Ted is beginning to believe that Someone doesn’t want us to row; right after we moved our boats, they put in a dock on the river right by our house; there haven’t been any storms til now; and this weekend, we were actually planning to go out there to row and have a hotel reservation nearby so we can be there at early practice. We’ve decided to keep the reservation, in hopes the storm abates soon enough to let us drive out Saturday late afternoon or evening, and row or at least work on the boats on Sunday morning.
Keep safe!
Hope you stay dry. Since Katrina, the NASA base here is almost hyper-active about closing the base at the slightest sign of weather.