Typhoon Stomps Around Manila

We always miss the excitement.

While we were out of town this past week, typhoon Milenyo hit Manila, knocking out power over most of Luzon and pouring buckets of rain into our living room where, unaware of the typhoon's approach, we had conveniently left the windows open.

Known by the rest of Asia as Xangsane, the Laotian word for elephant, the typhoon lined up perfectly with Manila, dragging its eyewall across the city, knocking down trees everywhere, including in our neighborhood. When we returned home Saturday evening, there was no power at all in our neighborhood, and not much water, since there was no electricity to power the water pumps. I've been through that joy before, when I was without power for three weeks on Guam after supertyphoon Paka struck in 1997, just two months after I moved to Guam. "Gee," I thought then, "what a great idea to move here..."

Luckily for us, the power came back on around 2:00 a.m. Sunday. I know many who were not that fortunate.

These are the branches I pulled out of our yard. Nothing major, really.


It also blew an outside door off its hinges.


And here are a few photos from around the neighborhood...