Hi all,
Preamble: I know I haven't been around for ages, and I'll explain why in another post. I'm not going to waste time on this one though, as I've decided to do something way more exciting. Namely, live-blogging a typhoon. Pretty sure someone has done this before (The Guardian), but it might be interesting nonetheless.
I'm sitting here as the edge of typhoon Bolaven hits me in Siheung City, South Korea (map). I'll try to keep this updated throughout the day with what's happening. Not sure what form the updates will take just yet, but it should be interesting. Anyway, you can read a little more about it here.
6:24am: Awoken at 6.12am by repeated tapping noise. Turns out to be the wind coming through the air conditioning and rattling my bathroom door. The noise coming from the aircon ducts sounds like something emanating from the Temple of Doom. Already quite intimidating and I don’t think that we’ve really got started yet. This photo shows things looking relatively normal. Weird thing is that the wind is whistling, jet engine style, around the 18th floor of my building already, but at street level the trees don’t seem to be moving that much, and people seem to be going to work oblivious. Kids however, aren’t going to school as the government has cancelled it for the day. This more than anything has me worried, as very little manages to separate Koreans and their educational institutions, not even supposed summer vacations. Am on 2 hours sleep so far, so will try to get a little more and then report back.
7:40am: Not doing so well at sleeping right now. Not totally sure why seeing as it's bedtime in England. Nevertheless, it's breakfast time here, so am pouring myself a bowl of Strawberry Crisp and watching the storm develop. It's raining steadily, but not heavily here, and the wind hasn't got any stronger either. These updates are exciting huh? There do seem to be less people going to work though - this road is normally nose to tail at this time. On my Twitter, @holterbarbour says:
"Hey Bolaven- pretty lackluster showing here in Seoul so far. Are you a hurriCANe or a hurriCAN'T?"
Hubristic? Stay tuned to find out. And look at this satelite pic while you do. In a couple of hours that will be right on top of me.
9:01am: On the edges of Seoul it seems like a fairly average day. The wind has dropped and the rain has ceased to fall for a while. However, the clouds are scudding across the sky at an alarming rate, and it is expected to get much worse around lunchtime, which is when my colleague Robyn will be out and about. She had this to say:
I know I'm harping on this, but so far it's really not worse than normal Somerset West winter rain. Maybe later it will be a SW thunderstorm, where some potted trees get blown into neighbours' yards?
Preamble: I know I haven't been around for ages, and I'll explain why in another post. I'm not going to waste time on this one though, as I've decided to do something way more exciting. Namely, live-blogging a typhoon. Pretty sure someone has done this before (The Guardian), but it might be interesting nonetheless.
I'm sitting here as the edge of typhoon Bolaven hits me in Siheung City, South Korea (map). I'll try to keep this updated throughout the day with what's happening. Not sure what form the updates will take just yet, but it should be interesting. Anyway, you can read a little more about it here.
6:24am: Awoken at 6.12am by repeated tapping noise. Turns out to be the wind coming through the air conditioning and rattling my bathroom door. The noise coming from the aircon ducts sounds like something emanating from the Temple of Doom. Already quite intimidating and I don’t think that we’ve really got started yet. This photo shows things looking relatively normal. Weird thing is that the wind is whistling, jet engine style, around the 18th floor of my building already, but at street level the trees don’t seem to be moving that much, and people seem to be going to work oblivious. Kids however, aren’t going to school as the government has cancelled it for the day. This more than anything has me worried, as very little manages to separate Koreans and their educational institutions, not even supposed summer vacations. Am on 2 hours sleep so far, so will try to get a little more and then report back.
Brief update - 6:36am. First tiny drops of rain are hitting
my window. Strongly suspect that these won’t be the last. Korean weatherforecast seems to agree, but only predicts 3 inches between now and midnight. I
guess that’s quite a lot though
7:40am: Not doing so well at sleeping right now. Not totally sure why seeing as it's bedtime in England. Nevertheless, it's breakfast time here, so am pouring myself a bowl of Strawberry Crisp and watching the storm develop. It's raining steadily, but not heavily here, and the wind hasn't got any stronger either. These updates are exciting huh? There do seem to be less people going to work though - this road is normally nose to tail at this time. On my Twitter, @holterbarbour says:
"Hey Bolaven- pretty lackluster showing here in Seoul so far. Are you a hurriCANe or a hurriCAN'T?"
Hubristic? Stay tuned to find out. And look at this satelite pic while you do. In a couple of hours that will be right on top of me.
9:01am: On the edges of Seoul it seems like a fairly average day. The wind has dropped and the rain has ceased to fall for a while. However, the clouds are scudding across the sky at an alarming rate, and it is expected to get much worse around lunchtime, which is when my colleague Robyn will be out and about. She had this to say:
I know I'm harping on this, but so far it's really not worse than normal Somerset West winter rain. Maybe later it will be a SW thunderstorm, where some potted trees get blown into neighbours' yards?
Brave words from the people of Seoul... I'm going to try to get some more kip whilst it's quiet.
12.26pm: Well, I managed to sleep pretty well, but I must have been woken up by the storm, which has indeed got a lot worse. There's fairly heavy, sideways rain beating against my window and things are looking a lot more, well, typhoony. There's still a fair amount of traffic on the roads, but I have only seen one person on the street so far, and they were being blown into an involuntary run, so the wind must be pretty strong. I certainly sounds impressive up here on the 18th floor. It is though, still surprisingly clear out there.
2:50pm: Updates are few and far between here because not much seems to be happening in Siheung. In fact, I'm not sure that the sun isn't going to come out. It's still really windy though, and the fact that one of the shared kitchen windows in my building doesn't shut is a bit worrying. Still, we're supposed to be at the worst point in the storm here, and I can see a couple of brave souls walking around in their shorts. Nothing else to report here, though sadly a Chinese fishing boat has overturned near Jeju killing at least 4 people, and I'm reading tweets about trees blowing down the road. For now though, I can't see anything amiss here.
5:51pm: This might be the final update, as again, not much is happening. The wind got up for a while back there, enough to blow open a window in the shared kitchen and turn the corridor into a temporary wind tunnel, but aside from that it's been a very calm typhoon, and a slightly disappointing blog post. Looking out the trees are all standing and there's even a group of old ladies out for a stroll (they do breed them tough out here though). If anything happens I'll update this again, but for now I'm going to go off, have some dinner and think about something more interesting to write about.
A
2:50pm: Updates are few and far between here because not much seems to be happening in Siheung. In fact, I'm not sure that the sun isn't going to come out. It's still really windy though, and the fact that one of the shared kitchen windows in my building doesn't shut is a bit worrying. Still, we're supposed to be at the worst point in the storm here, and I can see a couple of brave souls walking around in their shorts. Nothing else to report here, though sadly a Chinese fishing boat has overturned near Jeju killing at least 4 people, and I'm reading tweets about trees blowing down the road. For now though, I can't see anything amiss here.
5:51pm: This might be the final update, as again, not much is happening. The wind got up for a while back there, enough to blow open a window in the shared kitchen and turn the corridor into a temporary wind tunnel, but aside from that it's been a very calm typhoon, and a slightly disappointing blog post. Looking out the trees are all standing and there's even a group of old ladies out for a stroll (they do breed them tough out here though). If anything happens I'll update this again, but for now I'm going to go off, have some dinner and think about something more interesting to write about.
A
