Typhoon Soudelor is poised to make landfall on the east coast of Taiwan with winds of about 115 MPH, which makes it the equivalent of a category three on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The island can expect destructive winds, torrential rainfall, landslides, and a damaging storm surge in coastal communities. Soudelor will make a second landfall in China on Sunday afternoon (local time) as a significantly weaker storm, but still a heavy rain producer.
Hahaha. Oh wow. That’s great.
First hand report here, which you can verify by checking my IP address:
I was genuinely worried about my windows blowing out during the storm, several times the air pressure caused them to shift in their frames. I was here in Taiwan in 2009 when Morakot hit, and that was a mild breeze compared to this. How strong were the winds? Below are pictures of two pieces of metal that were undamaged on Friday as I passed them on my way home. I photographed them this morning before noon.
The first is the sliding door of an optometrist’s. Most businesses have doors that lower, and this wasn’t the only one blown out. See those four bolts in the wall each side of the door? There used to be signs there, and they weren’t removed by the business owner. The store closed before 4pm on Friday and the signs were still there. (But not convenience stores! The jerks who own them kept them open during the storm, including the 7-11 in the background.)
The second is a movable barrier, commonly found in front of most apartment buildings here. The security guards move them to allow or prevent cars from driving into the building entrances or prevent them from parking. This one was thrown by the wind and wrapped around something, probably a car or a lamp post. Just imagine if it had been tossed through a window.
The weirdest thing is what’s happening as I write at 3pm: nothing. The eye of the storm passed overhead between 8am and 12pm, so the back side should be passing over by now. Instead, it’s just another cloudy Saturday. That doesn’t mean I’m going outside, not with 40kmh winds and another thunderstorm predicted by evening.
