Vincente' came to town.

Earthquakes.

I grew up with Earthquakes.

I have been conditioned to be prepared for the 'BIG ONE'...

Guaranteed to happen at any moment....

I KNOW Earthquakes.

Typhoons, however.

What in the heck is that?

and

How do you prepare for a Typhoon?

Well, we had the opportunity of marking

 Lived through a Level 10 (highest level) Typhoon

off our life 'To Do' list.

(Didn't even know it was on the list.)

Btw, 

This storm was the 1st Level 10 they have had in 13 years.

At the apex of the storm 

as it came in contact with Hong Kong

The winds were up to 260 Kilometers per hour.

That is some serious wind.

It is accompanied with what appeared to be sheets of water.

VERY LOUD...

Arial view of a Typhoon from above.

Another name for a Typhoon is a tropical cyclone.

Apparently, the difference between 

a hurricane and a typhoon

is where it is located.   

 Also, the direction in which it rotates.

Typhoons rotate counterclockwise. 

The wind was VERY INTENSE.

Kayla and Logan's flat is on the 50th floor,

and even though the door to their flat is INSIDE

the wind blowing through the windows and openings

was so intense they could barely get their flat door open.

Todd and I are on the 10th floor,

so I don't even know if this is true,

but Todd and I decided that Kay and Lo needed to sleep over.

Everything we read said to stay away from windows...

Hmn?  That is a slight problem...

Seeing that EVERY ROOM has huge windows,

and all the beds are under the windows...

Logan slept on the sofa, 

but we moved it and faced it away from the window.

I am sure MUCH safer!

(Lily thought so.)

The only real impact we personally had

was that one off our really hard to open windows opened 

during the apex of the typhoon.

Logan took care of it!

Thanks, Lo!

Why is it that the Typhoon had to hit from 3-5am?

We didn't go to bed til about 1am,

because it is hard to go to sleep knowing 

a crazy big Typhoon is coming...

Couldn't it hit from 3-5pm, so we can sleep?

Just saying.

We were all feeling a bit exhausted in the morning.

Anyhow, the Typhoon Level was lessened to about a 3 

around 1pm, so we could venture out again.

This is some of what we found.

It was still rainy and windy.

 Trees were the biggest casualties.

POOR trees. :(

(I always wonder how the bird do as well.)

 Honey had been crossing her paws.

Waiting for her walk.

So, around 2pm, finally Lo and I took her.

The path was a little bit challenging!

Everything was messy and flooded too

We were able to get laundry done!

Luckily, there is a covered walkway,

so the kids only got wet on half their bodies.

The wind and rain were still a bit intense.

The walkway

Zoomed in view 

 (see trolley?)

and down the escalator  

The pool was full of junk,

but they had the guy

 in the speedo 

clean it all up by the end of the day. 

The night rains are beautiful,

with the light reflecting off the drops...

 

and 

Since we were all so happy to have weathered 

our FIRST TYPHOON

We went to the mall and shared 

Mango Matterhorns 

(Todd's name for them)

My description: Yummy mango glop and fresh shaved ice!

DELISH!

 

Bonus: Fun Dog times...   Bunny claims the big bed.

and Haser house sillinesssss...   for your entertainment

(As an aside Krystin would like me to mention that I don't normally EVER call our creatures brats. LOL!)

(Yes, maybe I was distracting myself from ironing...)