The weekend just after the Fulbrighters left for home saw Xiamen hit by Typhoon Linfa. We were lucky to be facing the mainland rather than being on the other side of the island but we still saw high winds (we gained a shirt and sock on one balcony and many leaves too) and lots of rain.
It was early in the evening when I stepped out onto the balcony, having just put the terrible duo to bed, and saw the clouds shaping up. The white splotches are the start of the rain reflected in the flash.
I stepped back inside and not 2 minutes later, the heavens opened!
The rain was being blown horizontal often enough that our doors got a beating. The wind was pushing the rain under the door and into the sliding tracks - we were lucky not to experience anything more than a few splashes here and there on the floor. 
The following day we saw many small boats around in the water off the apartment scooping out all the rubbish and leaves that was floating around. We're not sure whether they are a government initiative, or whether there is money to be made in fishing stuff out of the ocean after a typhoon.
None of the trees in our complex appeared damaged though there were many trees down around Xiamen. Our empty pool collected a lot of rubbish.
Apparently the category one typhoon was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made landfall over Xiamen although What's On Xiamen reported that it had the strongest winds since the No. 14 typhoon in 1999. This meant that they closed the bridges linking the island to the mainland because winds reached gale force 11 (29m/sec).
What's On Xiamen reported that Linfa is the third typhoon of the season and that the port was closed as well as the BRT (rapid transit buses that operate on upper level roads above certain city streets) from around 4pm.
I'm glad I was at home.
2 comments:
I'm glad you guys are OK. It sounds like it was quite a storm!
Just love the hairdo. Please don't get Alex's hair cut before the big trip to Oz.
Joan
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