Typhoon Morakot

As luck would have it I’ve already had the privileged of experiencing my first typhoon. I have discovered that a typhoon is the same thing as a hurricane but because it is the north Pacific Ocean is is call a typhoon. Typhoons do not have categories like hurricanes, instead they simple tell you the wind speed and from that you can determine how bad it really is. Since I had already been through hurricane Ike I figured this would be no problem, but this has been a far different experience than Ike.

They typhoon hit Taipei which is at the north end of the island, about 150 miles (or 3 hours) north of Chiayi city. It produced wind speeds up to 92 mph and about 7 inches of rain in Taipei. In Chiayi it rained for 3 days and produced about 28 inches of rain, while the southern tip of the island received almost 110 inches of rain. The good news for Taiwan is that all the rain has refilled the reservoirs, which were very low a week ago.

So how does this all compare to my experience with Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike produced wind speeds of 110 mph and about 8 inches of rain at the eye of the storm and about 12 inches in surrounding areas. From what I recall it only rained for about 1 day instead of 3 days and with Ike I was without power for a week, at least I have power now. Ike also shut down the city for a few days, and although things have been closed here, their has been little damage in my area. It may be a very different story in Taipei. I guess I just don’t like all the rain.