Typhoon Xangsane

Today, we experienced our very first encounter with typhoon in our life. Thank God we were well protected at home, eventhough it was pretty scary staying on the 19th floor when it happened.

I was in the office at 7am for our morning conference call with US when I saw an advisory email that the Metro Manila will be hit by the typhoon Xangsane by noon. We could be asked to go home, they said. By 10am, it got worse. The sound of the winds which they said gusting up to 160 km/h was pretty scary. My local Filipino friends in the office seemed very calm. I was not as it was my first experience with typhoon. I touched the window glass panel behind my workstation (on 35th floor!!) and it was vibrating!! The power went off and we were then on genset. By 10.30am we were told that work has been suspended for the day and we were all advised to go home.

To cut the long story short, I managed to get home safely. I saw a number of trees on the street and roads have started to be messy with debris. From my apartment, I saw zinc roof flying.

By about 4pm the typhoon has passed Metro Manila and headed toward Vietnam and was expected to make a landfall on Sunday. Thank God again, we're all safe and protected. But the disappointing thing is ... the typhoon has gone .. it's a working day tomorrow.