Calm after the storm....

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Graphic from AccuWeather.com.

Yesterday, typhoon Milenyo (international code name: Xangsane) cut a swath of destruction as it plowed right through eastern Visayas and central Luzon before heading out to the South China Sea. In it's wake it left about 50 dead, many more missing, and hundreds of millions of pesos in property damage.

Milenyo is perhaps the most powerful typhoon to hit Philippine soil in more than a decade, and one of the most violent to hit the greater Manila area.

As I type these words, approximately less than 60% of Luzon is receiving electrical power, courtesy of the fallen electical posts and transmission lines brought down by winds in excess of 110 kilometers per hour.

Classes in all levels were suspended, as was work in all government offices, except those performing emergency services.

And a number of roads have been rendered impassable, blocked by debris, overturned vehicles, fallen billboards, and uprooted trees.

I guess this typhoon has really lived up to its name. Xangsane is the Laotian word for "elephant". With so much damage inflicted, it's just as if a herd of rampaging elephants stampeded across Luzon and Visayas.

While photographs and videos showing the aftermath of the storm were splashed on newspapers and TV news programs, I really don't have to go far to see first hand how destructive Milenyo really was. All I had to do was go to our backyard.

Here are some photos I took with my trusty camera phone:

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A mango tree, which has been in our backyard as far as I can remember, resting precariously on my brother's roof.

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Another fallen tree, which knocked out all electrical and telephone connections for all the buildings in our compound.

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A tall mound of leaves and broken branches, mute testimony to the power of Milenyo.

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There's no "i" in "team". Apparently there isn't one in "Jollibee" either. I wonder where it blew off to.

Despite all our technological arrogance and hubris, when nature rears its ugly head, all we can do is hold on, and brace ourselves.

They say that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. That must have been one hell of a butterfly.

Links:

The Wrath of Milenyo - An INQ7.net Special Site

Comments

Lynn said…
Wow!
So September to November must be a pretty crazy time for weather in the Philipeans.
I hope that there are not too many more storms like that for you all this year.
Ronald Allan said…
Yeah, I hope so too. With all this pollution and global warming jazz, storms seem to be getting more and more violent as of late, and they seem to be frequenting heavily populated areas lately.

Thankfully, the damage, though extensive, is nowhere near the carnage suffered by Indonesians during the tsunami a couple of years ago.

I guess we've been abusing nature a lot, and she's starting to complain.

Hope the weather's nice in your part of the world.

And, just to set things straight, it's spelled "Philippines". Maybe you'd like to spend your vacation here sometime. :-) The weather here is pretty nice and sunny...well usually. :-)

You have a good one now. :-)

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