We made it through a Category 4 typhoon. It was a Super Typhoon Category 5 right before hitting the island, but it slowed at landfall. On May 26 Mawar had 1-minute sustained winds of 185 mph according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The eye was projected to go right over us, but it made a Northern turn to nick the northern side of the island which is the Andersen Air Force Base. We haven't been up to that side of the island since the typhoon, but news of the devastation up there is nuts. And then Camp Blaz is mostly under construction this storm has pretty much set them back to the beginning of any construction. All of the Navy ships and Air Force aircraft left the island for safer waters/airports. The Guam Department of Education opened emergency shelters at 12 schools on May 23 which housed 862 people. The gym at Andersen Air Force Base also operated as a shelter. Several of the southern villages got a mandatory evacuation order because of the storm surge.
We are so grateful to be living in the on-base houses. They all come equipped to handle this kind of storm. I closed all of the storm shutters which renders the interior of the house very dark. Then the storm door latches and the thick front door deadbolted. The garage door is also typhoon-ready. The same kind of thickness as our garage door in North Carolina. The roll-down storm shutters were the coolest because they encased the screen porch so that I could pull all of my plants to be protected from the "defoliation" speed winds. Around the neighborhood, they pulled down all the street signs and put a sandbag on top to hold them down. We took off the net of the trampoline and flipped the main section. Our neighbor had some extra sandbags in his truck we put in the center as well. I got a few more soil bags that especially once wet are very heavy. The lead-up to the storm was very antsy. Losing power was definitely going to happen, but the risk of losing water was unpleasant. We filled buckets all over the house and the tub. Post-storm there are always boil notices, so having some potable water ready was a must. I also filled up some spent juice bottles and milk cartons to make gigantic ice cubes to keep in the freezer. The schools were open on the 22nd but then closed down on the 23rd. By the 24th we lost power at 1 pm. Then the emergency lights come on. They lasted about 24 hours while steadily getting dimmer. The evening of the 24th was when the winds were really howling. It seemed like forever. The typhoon moved so slowly. By the 25th, we had no cell reception and the winds were still going, just not so much as to knock you over. Much to Damon's dismay, the tree at the back of the house didn't fall over. Our only damage was a paint bubble on the glass block window outside of the master bathroom. The trampoline didn't budge at all. Other people had flooding through the entire house and roofs ripped off. Our house is built like and bunker and I felt really safe inside the house. The boys slept fine! Damon wanted to get busy raking up all the needles that fell. The building behind us is the library and part of the barracks. Almost all of its roofing tar was blasted off and pieces were all over our yard. My favorite was the sleeping porta potty with the seat just 8 feet away. We did go out for a stroll around the neighborhood before the COR4 was released so we got reminded by the Duty Officer driving around in his truck to go back home.
The aftermath of the storm was when things got crazy. We had our generator all ready and Damon had a gas can. We will be acquiring another larger gas can once they get back in stock. Everything was closed. The communication was shaky because cell service was limited and even the radio was all fuzz for a few days. When a radio station did come back on it was a composite of three stations all sharing their studio which was run on transformer. The most difficult part of the power outage was being so intensely hot. Fortunately, my time at Jose Rios was good training being in a non-air-conditioned space. But we couldn't plug in fans to at least move the air. All of our windows have screens and open without issue. We instituted a once-per-day fridge door opening too. Many of our neighbors had whole-house generators, but then the issue of gas accessibility comes up. Without power none of the credit card machines so everything was cash-based. Then only some of the stations were even open so people ended up waiting for hours just to get some gas. We went on Friday morning with our little can and just walked over. We were lucky because the front gate wasn't opened up to non-essential workers until 8 am so the only people in line were base residents. And at that point, people were only permitted $20 for each trip which doesn't really go far if trying to fill up any more than some gas cans. But then people would be sitting in their idling vehicles thus wasting gas. The next excitement was when the commissary opened back up. I got there 45 minutes before opening and was about 40th in line. They had some sailors at the end of each endcap so we had to follow one route which made for a very efficient outing. We were only allowed two of any item. Shopping for camping-level food preparedness is tricky. Especially when there is no end in sight. Early estimates were having no power for several weeks. The next struggle was doing laundry. We all only wore quick-dry fabrics so the boys got to cruise around in the swimsuits all day long. I would soak the clothes overnight in soapy water, rinse with clean water, and then wring out the water and dangle the clothes all over our front patio and lawn chairs. The rainy days were nice in that they were cooler, but then absolutely nothing would dry because the humidity was so high.
No comments:
Post a Comment