Typhoon Frank

It was almost a week ago when Typhoon Frank (internationally code-named: Fengshen) visited our country. It was Sunday morning, and I woke up to a dark room and the wind pounding on my closed windows. The rain was pouring noisily outside.

There was no electricity, and the house was dark. I managed to have breakfast with only candles for light.

I was out of touch for some time. No TV, no radio, and no Internet. Luckily, the mobile phones were still working, so I could exchange SMS with my parents and brother.

Electric power returned by midday, but there was no cable TV. My source of information was the Internet. I was able to track the path of the typhoon and found out that it would pass by our area late in the afternoon.

By mid-afternoon, the worst of the typhoon was upon us. Winds buffeted the trees in the yard, tearing off some of the branches. A bird's nest fell from one of the trees; the poor little chicks died when they hit the concrete.

Surprisingly, the electric power didn't go off. Cable TV was even restored, even as the typhoon unleashed its fury on our area. After a couple of hours, the winds and rains calmed down.

TV news started broadcasting all the horrific images of devastation in the other provinces of the country. Scores died in the wake of the typhoon. Near where I was, there was news of a couple getting electrocuted because floodwaters reached their electrical outlets before they got to higher ground.

The worst story was about a ship that capsized in the middle of the typhoon after huge waves hit it. Some 800 souls were aboard that ship, and it was only the day after that reports of survivors, only 20 at first and now 50, came out.

The name Frank has just been removed from the list of typhoon names in the country because of its strength and the devastation it wrought.