Waiting for Typhoon Kammuri to Pass

Typhoons are the Northwest Pacific Ocean’s version of our hurricanes.  In the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, the more generic term tropical cyclone is used for these storms.   Though all are in technical terms tropical cyclone events, differences exist.

Hurricanes churn from the Atlantic Ocean embracing winds rotating in a counterclockwise direction.

Typhoons rotate clockwise.

Typhoons also tend to be bigger and badder than hurricanes.  This is because typhoons are spawned from warmer ocean water.  Warm water is a key ingredient in building such storms.  Warmer water feeds more energy into the storms.

I am particularly interested in this subject because my girl, Desiree, is currently hunkered down in a house being thrashed by Typhoon Kammuri (called Tisoy in the Philippines).

Desiree lives on the Philippine island of Luzon—the largest and most populous island in the chain.  Typhoon Kammuri approached the island as a Category 4 storm.  The storm was clocking sustained winds of 130 mph when the first bands reached landfall.  The eye of the typhoon is passing over the southern portion of the island of Luzon.

When I went to bed last night (Monday night), Desiree was just starting her Tuesday morning.  More importantly, the strongest bands were expected to lash at Manila, where she lives, at about my normal wake-up time.  Now, in other words.

I woke at 4:12 this morning, rolled out of bed, and tried to contact Desiree.

Dead silence in return on my first contact.

After waiting a few more minutes, I tried again.

Contact.

The storm is grasping at Desiree, but has weakened in the last few hours.  So far so good.  But I don’t like sitting here thousands of miles away, waiting, not knowing.

In a word: frustrating.

Desiree and I have developed a text response for times when we want to show our frustration.  I will share that with you now:

“Aayyyy!”

—Mitchell Hegman