General Chat

My son is in the direct path of this super typhoon due to hit the Philippines on Friday. He's on a tiny island - Boracay. He said they've used sandbags and taken out windows where he works but there's not much else they can do. Oddly, they've had to have a filippino man to climb the coconut palms to remove the coconuts because if they fall they could kill someone. Apparently, some 143 people are killed every year by falling coconuts and, if it's your tree, you're liable. They let the man keep the coconuts to sell. They've stocked up on torch batteries because they'll probably lose power which means we'll lose him on Skype. It's the strongest typhoon anywhere in the world this year and I'm going frantic.

Annie

How scary for all concerned. I really hope that it passes him by and stays out at sea.

ooer - glad I'm not there - fingers crossed he's safe :-)

Saw this on the news....frightening.
Hope your son is OK x <3

Ooh Kuros - Annie, I will think of your son and hope it misses his island in the end and that he stays safe.

My son just phoned. He said they've done all they can and now just have to sit and wait. He said the local people have been filling sandbags from the beach. His dive centre people have been doing it too. It's illegal but no-one cares about that and there's no-one there to stop them. It's forecast to last six hours but with winds in excess of two hundred miles per hour that's going to seem like an awfully long time. It's definitely going to hit them but its intensity will depend on how much it weakens after making landfall on the more eastern islands.

If anyone's interested in seeing his pictures pm me and I'll give you the site name. He works as a photographer too and he sells his pictures so they can't be copied but anyone can look at them.

Annie

I do hope your son and everyone around him stays safe, at least they are as prepared as they can be and know what to expect altho it doesn't ease your worries much. I have friends on the Philippines too altho we have lose contact now, they have two (or maybe by now more) young children so I hope they will be safe too.

Maybe your son should have kept a couple of coconuts to open if he needed refreshment but I am sure he is stocked up on bottled water too.

Will think lots of positive thoughts for safety for the islands and your son.

Lizx

Hello Kuros.....l do hope the Typhoon does'nt do any damage. A friendof mine is in Vietnam and the typhoon was due there yesterday, it didnt arrive so lets hope it does'nt where your son is. Everything crossed for everyone in the Philippines !!

jude xx

HOPE EVERYBODY ARE SAFE,
WE TAKE OUR WEATHER FOR GRANTED PERHAPS WE
SHOULD ALL HAVE SURVIVAL TRAINING.

Annie Hope your son stay's safe <3

I sent my brother an e-mail but had no reply he phoned the other day

and they are still getting the after shocks from the earthquake last month.

I feel sorry for those on Bohol who are in the path of the Typhoon and living in tent's

after they lost their homes in the earthquake <3

It's made landfall on an island in the Eastern Visayas. It's 8 o'clock in the morning there now and the webcam on the beach where my son is shows a calm sea and a lovely blue sky. I'm going to bed but I don't know how much sleep I'll get. He worked in Egypt for over three years and left there because it wasn't safe. Frying pans and fires come to mind.

Annie

Edit: He's just popped up on Skype and said it's a bright morning and a bit breezy but there's nothing due there for another 6-7 hours.

Hope things will be ok for them, don't you think we worry about our children more when they are older than when they are young and under our roofs?

Hope you got some sleep.

Lizx

Kuros.....praying your son is safe... <3 <3

Just seen on the news that the typhoon winds are the worst recorded in history
185- 200 mph and heading for Vietnam. Praying too that my friend and everyone will be safe... <3 <3
((((HUGS)))) to you Kuros.

jude xx

Hope your son is safe, Annie. <3

BC XX

Thinking of your son annie

seen it on the BBC weather this morning with Carol - looks horrendous - she says it's the highest winds ever recorded, over 200 mph - unimaginable

I do hope the worst is over and your son is safe <3

Best wishes to your son, Annie.....and everyone else in the path of this incredible typhoon.

Thinking of everyone in the Phillipines. Do hope your son stays safe Annie.
Von

Hope your son is safe during this horrific typhoon Annie.
There was me wittering on about the tornado over here recently......that was just a mild hiccup in comparison.

Thanks, everyone, for your concern. There's no word this morning and it looks like all communications are down. We can't get through on his mobile. They do lose power easily there, though and it's sometimes days before they get it back. No news is good news, as they say. The storm has passed his island now and is over the South China Sea. The last word we had was about midnight saying the winds were easterly so they would probably escape the worst of it on his side of the island. The island only measures one-and-a-half miles by half a mile but the weather is vastly different on the east coast from the west.

I have a dutch friend who told her mother she was pregnant and her mother said she would never have another day without worry in her entire life. How right that woman was!

Annie

Annie