Typhoon Songda

(See the pile of brown glass)

Typhoon Songda came with a little more force than any previous ones.  It uprooted trees, disassembled plastic sheds, broke windows, dented cars, broke patio tables, blew transformers, knocked down weather towers... impressive.

We were watching a movie while the kiddos slept when the storm really got bad.  It ended our movie a little early and we got ready for be by flashlight.  As we listened to things hitting the house and the windows rattling we started to debate about bringing all the family into our room.  As the wind blew against our big bedroom window we thought our room was not the safest in the house.  So I grabbed Tennyson and headed into Charlotte's room.  The storm woke up Grahm, Grahm and Jason tried to sleep on the couch - but having a 6 year old on top of you requires a little more room.  They headed back to our room.  We heard something make a lot of noise outside - so we all gathered at a big window and watched the storm for a bit.  Then I took 3 kids back to Charlotte's room to sleep.  Jayce slept through it until the wind changed direction, he joined Jason until morning.

We lost our only tree and the glass form our patio table.  Our shed, trampoline, and chairs hung on through the night.  We spent the day cleaning up glass from our lawn.  It was all over.  When the power came back on we purchased a shop vac and vacuumed the lawn.

 Our only tree, it had pretty flowers -so sad.

 Neighbors house

Shed pieces under Jason's car, something took out his driver side mirror.

Here is what we read about the storm:
“This storm was no joke, that’s for sure,” said Technical Sgt. Robert Fournier of the 18th Weather Flight on Kadena Air Base.
Fournier said Typhoon Songda was one of the most powerful storms he has seen in his four years on Okinawa. The Okinawa Meteorological Observatory said it was the strongest storm to hit Okinawa since it began keeping records in 1972, the year the United States returned the island prefecture to Japan.

What saved the island from worse wind damage was the nature of the storm itself, Fournier said. “Fortunately for the island, the 135 knot (155 mph) winds were a thousand feet or so up,” he said. “The strong winds were not at the surface, where they could have caused some serious damage.”