rain rain rain (and some wind) so far

We still have TV/Radio internet and electricity, so things aren't bad yet, and the roof is leaking, but not badly.

Right now, everyone is laying low and staying indoors. I gave the staff extra money to load up with food for the storm, and told them to stay home. So I don't know if the cook will manage to come: so far no, but she'll probably make it for lunch.

so we are fine, so far: But at least another 24 hours of wind and rain are coming, and things could easily get worse (i.e. we expect it to get worse).

but the news is showing a lot of damage up north.

Sigh. In our prayers.

(we live in Central Luzon, north of Manila but south of the mountains... the typhoon is hitting our northern area, not near here, but the typhoon is so large we are affected).

Here, we have had moderate rain all night, and the wind is moderate (30 mph): pulling down leaves and branchs but no trees down yet.

we are :signal 2. moderate winds (30-50 mph).

But we are orange warning for rain/flooding.

The streets have puddles similar to after a heavy rain but no flooding yet. Guess the new sewers are working so far.

but as it continues to rain, we could have the rivers and irrigation canals starting to overflow.

And then we will have water run off out of the mountains north of here. Often we have floods when they open the irrigation dams to prevent overflow and failing, but these don't last long, but are dangerous since often poor people who are squatters along the river/canals don't get the message.

Hopefully they have left their homes to stay with relatives or to the evacuation centers.

What kills people is the fear of looters: A lot of those killed in that big typhoon in the Visayas were the men who were guarding their homes, and who underestimated the danger of a storm surge.

No, this is not global warming: These typhoons happen all the time, but often didn't get in the history books.

The soil however is saturated, because a previous "Low pressure area" had rained us a lot...

and in the mountains, where illegal logging had removed the trees, there is a danger of landslides. Also the city of Baguio (with many foreign residents, retired US expats and Korean students) is hilly and may be cut off if there are landslides blocking the major roads.

and it is harvest time> Lots of worry if we will (again) lose our rice crop. The crop is ready to harvest, and some of the farmers who planted early have already harvested and dried the crop, but we planted later, so could lose our whole crop if it floods too much or the wind flattens the crop.

Sigh.

and then it will hit Hong Kong, Taiwan and/or Northern Vietnam, although it should be weaker by then.-------------------

update: The TV just showed some of the people from San Vincente (the neighborhood up the street that includes the palenke) have evacuated to the Evac center (aka city gym).

we are fine so far.