Typhoon!!

That really sounds more dramatic than it is, but nonetheless, we are experiencing our first Pacific typhoon, Typhoon Ramussan/Glenda. Before we left the mission home last night, we knew that our sister returning to Fiji had had her flights cancelled, then we got a text at 3:54 am from President Ostler saying that American flights were delayed until 4:30 this afternoon, and all others were cancelled. He asked that all missionaries remain in today and just hunker down. He also mentioned that their power was out.  I don't know how much longer our power stayed on, but at some point, I awoke to the silence of no air conditioner. Since we awoke the wind has been blowing powerfully and we've had some heavy rain. One of the roof coverings down below us was blown off, which, I expect, means dripping ceilings for them.

We had cold breakfast, and Dad shaved, by candlelight, and I'm writing this by battery power to post later with the return of the internet. We have found our building to feel very strong and secure during the storm.  I wonder if the large openings or breezeways that occur every five floors actually are intended to lower the wind resistance of the building. We even have a form of "air conditioning"-- the walls are hollow enough to allow large quantities of air to travel in through our door latches! It's quite nice! We also have windows that open for cross ventilation.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Post Script: We were without power for about 36 hours, except for a couple of hours one night; that allowed our computers to recharge and our freezer to get cold again. Luckily we didn't lose any food.  No missionaries were injured, and were back working the day after the typhoon, though without power. Every area we drove through subsequently had sheared off trees, damaged signage, and other signs of high winds. Our building had generators, so the hallways and parking areas were lit, even though our apartment was not.  We had a few meals by candlelight.