Thankyou Typhoon Lando

A couple of weeks ago it was an earthquake I didn’t notice.

This week it was a Typhoon I certainly did. Typhoon Lando. The only Lando I know of is Lando Calrisian the good guy then bad guy then good guy again from the Star Wars saga. The guy used to be a friend of Han Solo and then runs a gas mine planet moon thingy and sells him out. Anyway, Lando was somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind until Monday when typhoon Lando hit Cebu.

We get lots of warnings about typhoons at this time of year, and to be honest few people pay much attention. On Monday there was a warning that Lando was coming. I was out with the kids across town when it struck taking Ethan to his English lesson. Over about half an hour the rain got steadily heavier until it was impossible to drive so I pulled over at a local mall. Suddenly trees were coming down and the raod was flooded. Myself and the children took shelter in ‘Gonuts Donuts’ to ride it out. The kids thought it was great. A storm, lightninh and donuoghts – result. Then we had a powr cut and so decamped to Yellow Cab Pizza who still had power. This just kept getting better for the kids. Finally we decided to head home. A 20 minute journey took 2 hours. No traffic lights, flooded roads, trees down, loose electric cables – nightmare.

Finally we made it home to be greated by the sight on the left. Our mango trees had been brought down, as had our palm trees. Luckily the trees had missed the house and we had been out, otherwise they almost certainly would have landed on the car. Kids even more excited!

Finally we made it inside and the weather started to die down a bit. The next few days have been spent cleaning up and chopping wood. It has poured down for the last 4 out of 5 days, which starts to get a tad annoying after a while. Ironically Rentokil turned up the day after the storm (a month after they were expected) to ‘Defog’ our trees for mosquito’s. Mr Rentokil was completely unfazed by the situation and defogged our fallen trees as myself and a church member chopped them up. Any Mozzy that survived Lando and Mr Rentokil must be bionic.

Now from the obscurity of a bit part in Star Wars ‘Lando’ is heard frequently around Cebu. ‘Where were you when Lando hit?’ is the common question. Most people seem to have been dodging trees or fording rivers. Few own up to stuffing their faces in Gonuts Donuts. Thankfully there were few injuries, though sadly a couple of people did drown. A number of trees came down on cars and houses, as did some advertising hoardings, which has sparked a minor scandal as it comes to light that they weren’t properly registered/constructed/located/permitted etc. Cue various officals feigning surprise and credulity that such a thing could have happened in Cebu. Honestly, who would have thought that those dodgy looking huge boardings hanging over poor peoples homes were not authorised? How did that happen? Who is responsible for public safety in these situations? Oh I see, he didn’t know about them…