I first heard about the storm last Monday, when a friend said he was extending his stay in Siargao for the coming swells. So, this past week, I’ve had it in the back of my mind that a storm was coming. But storm, shworm, right? You’ve lived through one, you’ll live through them all. It never even occured to me that the storm might be dangerous.
Then last Wednesday, perhaps by way of making small talk, I casually mentioned the storm to Frida – from Sweden, like Abba – and she said, “Yeah, David [of Kawayan Resort] is freaking out about it and wants to leave the island.” Hmm… Bit paranoid of David, no? I mentioned as much to Frida, then promptly forgot about the conversation.
The next night, it was Frida’s turn to get paranoid. She sent me a few text messages, hassling me to find out more news about the storm. Right. I couldn’t be arsed and went out drinking.
But before Frida came around for dinner at my place the next evening, I made sure to pull up some website on the storm that I could show her on my computer. This is what I found:
"Typhoon Bopha is forecast to strike the Philippines at about 15:00 GMT on 4 December. Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall will be near 10.5 N,126.7 E. Bopha is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 203 km/h (126 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.
According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm of Bopha’s strength (category 3) at landfall includes:
Storm surge generally 2.7-3.7 metres (9-12 feet) above normal.
Some structural damage to small residences and utility buildings with a minor amount of curtainwall failures.
Damage to shrubbery and trees with foliage blown off trees and large trees blown down.
Mobile homes and poorly constructed signs are destroyed.
Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the centre of the storm.
Flooding near the coast destroys smaller structures with larger structures damaged by battering from floating debris.
Terrain continuously lower than 1.5 metres (5 feet) above mean sea level may be flooded inland 13 km (8 miles) or more.
Evacuation of low-lying residences within several blocks of the shoreline may be required.
There is also the potential for flooding further inland due to heavy rain.
The information above is provided for guidance only and should not be used to make life or death decisions or decisions relating to property. Anyone in the region who is concerned for their personal safety or property should contact their official national weather agency or warning centre for advice.
This alert is provided by Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) which is sponsored by Aon Benfield, Crawford & Company and University College London (UCL)."
Those are pretty alarming numbers, except that, typically and quite stupidly, I wasn’t alarmed.
I know this sounds obnoxious but I never think that anything really, really bad could ever happen to me. Maybe something mildly unpleasant but nothing that I couldn’t handle and certainly nothing earth-shatteringly bad. I still don’t think I’m going to die, for instance. Nor will anyone I love, simply because I will not allow it. Of course, the last guy who shared the same sentiment with me ended up with Frankenstein stitches where they cracked open his skull; he’s lost his eyesight in one eye and the hearing in his opposite ear. And still I believe I’m untouchable. This is the kind of hubris that is going to get me killed, isn’t it? Struck down by lightning and various biblical shit. Like plagues. And storms.
Of course, because they possess more sense than me, Frida and her boyfriend, Pontus, freaked out by the news I presented to them. To calm them down, right there and then, I made inquiries into some sort of evacuation plan for them and, consequently, for me. So that when Nicolas called me the next day, upon learning the news, I was like, “Yeah, I’m on top of it.”
He was incensed that I hadn’t told him about the storm and that he had to find out about it from somebody else. – Well, while I knew about it, I still didn’t reallyget it , did I? -__ It was only when he impressed upon me that, since I had decided to stay (- when I was talking to him, I still had the option of arranging a flight out of the island), I was now responsible for the lives of our staff. And our pets. Geezoos! I can’t be responsible for anything or anyone that isn’t me. Hell, sometimes, I’m not even responsible for me!
I focused and listened to what Nicolas had to say. Of course, I was still thinking like a dolt. I thought we’d each stock up on stuff in our own rooms, then run to higher ground when necessary. Which was really just across the road. If Nicolas could knock me on the head with words, well, he sort of did. He practically screamed at me, “If you aren’t in a safe place when this hits, you’ll never be safe! You can’t run to safety in a 200 km/h wind, with debris flying around!”
Good thinking, Robin.
This is why I have an uber-smart boyfriend. He has to be smart for both of us.
It’s a good thing that the arrangements I made for Frida, Pontus and me actually came through and, because Frida and Pontus so sagely decided to leave the island, and most of our staff opted to go their own ways too, I am now only officially responsible for me, Nicolas’ Right Hand Man and our Great Dane. Phew!
Of course, it was only when Nicolas gave me another talk and I listened to co-evacuee, David, this morning when I went to inspect our evacuation site, that I realized what sort of massive, serious shit was about to rain over Siargao. They both painted horrific pictures of dead bodies, fallen trees, a flattened, unrecognizable landscape, and a starving, desperate populace that survives it.
And they can sleep at night, and Ican’t???
We brought some plywood to board up the windows, but David showed us how a slight force would bend it and rap it against the glass. He said, “Now imagine that force at 200 km/h for one hour. That glass will shatter all over us.” It’s a good thing that David and his father, who is back in Siargao from France, are builders and supposedly spent a good part of the day making sure that our windows are properly boarded up. (I wouldn’t know. I went back to the house and sunned myself by the pool.)
But thank you to David and David’s father! Merci! Allow me to dedicate this cheesy, 80s song to both of you.
I’m still hoping that I was right not to panic about all of this and that the storm will lose steam and dissipate into a sputter before reaching us, or that it will change direction and wreak havoc where they’re used to havoc being wreaked. Er, like over an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere where miserable things occur that nobody knows about…
We’re a quiet, chilled out island, Siargao. The only havoc we know is the stirring in our souls when we’ve had too much to drink and have danced up a storm.
As of this writing, this is the news on Typhoon Bopha (a.k.a. Pablo):
AlertNet, Sun, 2 Dec 2012 07:52 GMT: Typhoon Bopha is forecast to strike the Philippines at about 21:00 GMT on 3 December. – That would be 5 AM, Tuesday morning.
Weather Philippines Foundation (www.weather.com.ph) is also a good site to check, but I can’t access it right now. The last update I read had the storm over Palau at 9:00 this evening. While it has entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility, landfall is still expected on Tuesday morning.