After a hot sunny Saturday I was happy to see some clouds
slowly rolling in about 4:30 p.m. I’ve
been looking forward to the end of the dry season, where the sun always shines
and dust is everywhere. We’ve had a few
showers recently, so things are beginning to cool a bit and the dust has
settled.
What turned into an overcast late afternoon sky quickly
changed as the wind picked up. Rain
started, coming from the east. Lightly
at first, with thunder in the distance over the mountains. Then the wind really increased and the rain
intensified and the lightening and thunder were close enough that counting to
1000 after each strike didn’t get out before the thunder boomed.
The power was off and on every few minutes and I stood in
the corner of my living room, floor to ceiling windows on both walls giving me
a perfect view of the spectacular storm.
Suddenly the wind shifted violently and instead of typical strong winds
from the east that accompany a thunderstorm, the rain and wind were coming from
the west, in a horizontal line. At first
it appeared to be heavy rain blowing by.
Or was it dust? No, it couldn’t
be dust, with all that rain. As I was
trying to decide the wind grew even stronger.
With a noise like a jet roaring past, I watched the small building used
to hold construction materials rip apart.
The tin roof flew about 40 yards across the soccer field.
Lightening, thunder, torrential rain, a steady roaring and
objects being blown around the school campus made me finally realize that
standing between two large plates of glass might not be the best place to be if
this really was a tornado, which is what I thought it might be.
I headed into my closet to avoid shattered glass, if it came
to that. After a couple of minutes, the
noise and storm continued but then I started to worry about flooding in my
room. I grabbed a couple of towels and
put one under the one window which leaks and another under the front door,
where rain was being blown into my apartment.
Since things seemed to be calming a bit, and I heard yelling,
I opened my door a crack to see if everyone was alright. In front of my door was the garbage can which
is normally around a corner and about 15 feet from my apartment. How it got around the corner is a testament
to the wind shift. I also found a
shattered plastic shelf and a variety of shoes.
Normally kept next to the front door of another teacher who lives at the
other end of the building. I rescued as
many shoes as I could but as she inched her way down to me, we saw more had
blown down into the street, three floors below.
I say “inched her way” because the hallway was completely wet, as it is
after every rain, and because they used the slickest tiles in the world (the
same as at the school), they make walking a treacherous adventure every time it
rains. Lucky for us (sarcasm), the
stairs are made of the same tiles.
The power went out yet again and this time the generator
didn’t kick on. Although it wasn’t quite
dark, I got out my headlamp just to be on the safe side. I also contemplated the tuna casserole that I’d
placed in the oven about 4 minutes before the power went out. Damn.
About 30 minutes later, though, power was back and there was
a break in the storm. I ventured out to
see how everyone was doing. The few of
us in residence gathered to admire the view of the now crystal clear mountains
and assess the damage. At least one
window blew out from an apartment.
Teacher Matt, glad you changed apartments and weren’t in your old one
when your front window blew!
AAT and Tr. YC came over from the main school building to
check out the situation and told me that all the large metal lockers at the
main school had been toppled. I’m not
sure what other damage occurred. The
main school building took the brunt of the storm when the wind shifted and came
out of the west, since the main school building blocked our apartment building.
Things continued to remain calm, even as the rains returned. Gently now, with less wind. The lightening was a treat to watch in the
distance as the storm moved away. No
internet, of course and I think my satellite dish needs to be recalibrated
since I now receive only two channels, but no one at the school was hurt.
I met a woman Saturday morning who is visiting Mandalay and
interviewed this morning for a teaching job.
She’s staying at a hostel nearby, which, I imagine, is not nearly as
well built as our new apartment building.
I hope the storm didn’t scare her off.
The storm was scary for us in a strong, well built apartment
building. I can’t imagine what it was
like in the typical local houses with sides made of woven bamboo and roofs of
wood, tin or thatch. I do not take for granted that I live a very
luxurious life compared to 98% of the people in the country. Whether due to luck or good behavior in a
past life, I was born into a status that has given me comfort, security and
safety.
I had a bad day at work the other day. Not horrible but frustrating. Then I left the air conditioned classroom to
walk home past women who’d been shoveling sand and carrying bricks for 8 hours
in 100+ degree heat. And would have to
then walk home and do all the household chores and take care of their
families. Perspective.
UPDATE: I just heard
that according to the news (someone else heard, since my satellite dish was a
victim of the storm, at least temporarily) the wind strength yesterday was 201
km per hour – considered tornado strength although it wasn’t a tornado. I hope not to experience anything like it again. I also discovered that the wind broke a small
piece out of one of my small windows.
