Typhoon Hits Home

Last night was a pretty scary night for all of us.  When I returned home last night around midnight after a performance reception, the rain was falling pretty hard.  About 2 am, Oliver ran into the room and said he was scared.  By that time, the wind had really picked up outside and was literally thrashing our curtains and window shades about.  Window were rattling, doors were slamming inside due to the suction caused by the intense wind, and the wind was howling full force.  After Dahin's door opened and shut several times due to the force of the wind (stacked books or a toy bin could not keep the door in place), she ran into our room and climbed into bed.  I did not want to shut the outside windows and slide doors completely because I was, perhaps irrationally, worried about our home imploding. I know about tornados and air pressure, but nothing about typhoons.  So, I did what I would have done in the case of a tornado (except did not force the family into the bathtub). I shut the doors a little, and enough to allow for some air flow, but what an air flow.   Then Ronan and Oliver's door slammed shut.  I didn't hear Ronan wake up so assumed he was ok, but discovered that the wind had, somehow, locked the door.  Ronan had initally tried to open the door, but then ran back into bed and threw the covers over his head because he was convinced there was a ghost in his room.  Around daybreak, he worked the door open and crawled into bed with us.  That made five of us in our queen-sized bed.  Needless to say, with all the howling, slamming doors, rattling window, sirens, electonics turning off and on, I did not sleep much.  We woke up this morning to find we had no electricity, so made the best of it and served the kids yogurt and fruit for breakfast and made coffee on the gas stove (thank goodness we cook with gas).  

I've pasted a couple of articles below about the storm, the biggest to hit the Seoul area in fifteen years.  The photo at the bottom is not one I took (raining too hard to brave going out and taking a picture), but it resembled the scene in our neighborhood this morning.  Trees along the road had literally been snapped in two and I had to step over branches and past downed trees on the way to my office. College was stil in session on time, as was the boys' preschool, but Dahin's school was delayed by two hours.  Thank goodness no one was hurt from the flying debris.

Now, the weather is so wierd.  The sun is out at the moment (almost 2 pm), but the sky is stormy dark.  Thinking it may rain again before long since, as I understand it, the typhoon has not completely cleared the area.

ARTICLES:

Typhoon Kompasu Lashes Seoul; Flights Canceled, Schools Closed

September 01, 2010, 9:10 PM EDT
Stuart Biggs

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Kompasu reached islands off the west coast of the Korean peninsula, bringing strong winds and heavy rain that knocked out power in parts of Seoul, forced the cancellation of flights and delayed the opening of schools.

The center of Kompasu was 58 kilometers (36 miles) northwest of Seoul at 6:35 a.m. local time, the Korea Meteorological Administration said on its website. Kompasu’s winds slowed as the storm reached land and they were blowing at 97 kilometers per hour, down from 176 kph overnight.

Kompasu may dump as much as 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain in some parts of the Korean peninsula today, the administration said.

As many as 128 flights, including five international services, were canceled in South Korea as of 6 a.m. because of the storm, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said in a statement on its website. Incheon Port Authority said work at the port has stopped because vessels are docked to avoid Kompasu.

The government has more than 14,000 emergency workers monitoring the impact of the storm, the statement said. Debris littered the streets as strong winds and heavy rain lashed the South Korean capital.

Electric power distribution systems in Seoul and surrounding provinces were damaged, according to Korea Electric Power Corp. More than 725,800 houses were without power as of 7 a.m. today, the power distributor said in a statement.

School hours for elementary and middle schools in Seoul, Incheon and nearby areas have been delayed by 2 hours today, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Kompasu is expected to pass across the peninsula and move over open water to the east, the Korea Meteorological Administration said. Warnings were issued for strong winds and high waves, the administration said.


KOREA TIMES:
Typhoon Batters Seoul, West Coast Areas

Typhoon Kompasu struck central South Korea early Thursday morning, bringing downpours and gusts that paralyzed metro operations in Seoul and adjacent areas.With almost all above-ground sections of Seoul's subway lines out of service, street trees toppled and winds blowing at a speed of over 20 meters per second, commuters and students were forced to undergo the worst transportation chaos in decades.The typhoon caused power outages along the west coast and forced airlines to cancel or divert domestic and international flights.Kompasu is the strongest tropical storm to hit Seoul in 15 years.The seventh typhoon of the year reached Ganghwa Island on the west coast at a speed of 45 kilometers per hour as of 6:35 a.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).The KMA issued typhoon warnings for Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and South Chungcheong Province, forecasting the tropical storm is expected to move to the East Sea Thursday afternoon.