The storm that wasn't

Monday just gone (17 November) the hotel staff told me to expect that there would be a big storm in the afternoon. Big storm! Well, what they actually were referring to was a typhoon that was expected to make landfall in south Vietnam that day. When I came back later in the morning I was given a note - here's what it had to say:

Please be informed to all of you that the big storm will be coming to Vung Tau city at 16:00pm today 17 November 2008.

We would like to informed you some things as below:

1. Electricity may be cut when storm coming so we will send you the light and candle for replacement of power
2. For more safety we required all customer at 3rd floor from Room No 301 - 309 will moving to the second floor

Note: Please bring some valuable thing such as money, computer ... with you when you moving.

NB - I am on the 3rd floor in room 304 (having relocated after the roof leaked in room 306). Well, I packed up a few things in preparation for a move and waited a while. In the afternoon as 4pm approached I went and asked whether I should move and was given the key.

In preparation the hotel staff were filling sandbags and putting them on the roof to hold it down in the event of winds.


I got a call from ILA and later a text message to say that classes were cancelled (I wasn't teaching :( ). And so we waited. In the meantime the high-rise construction nearby continued unabated, people continued to go about their normal lives, and I started to get cabin-fever.

So I went out to Front Beach, looked at the sky, felt the wind (light sea breeze as usual) noted the absence of clouds, rain etc, and thought well ...

During this time David called and asked about the typhoon because he had been talking to someone in Ben Tre (further south) and learned about the preparations there. Later I met up with a Vietnamese friend Linh, and he was able to tell me that although Vung Tau almost never experiences typhoons 2 years ago one did come ashore here in the early morning. Noone had believed the warnings because it just didn't happen so they just went about life as usual. Unfortunately for the early morning exercisers this was not a very good idea. About 55 people were killed in Vung Tau, and since then the city/provincial authorities have figured precaution is much better.

And for the record although we didn't experience anything of it, the typhoon has come in further along the coast. Yes we are very relieved and a little bemused by the precautions but on the other hand ...