Hurricane Katrina

As you can imagine I read a tons of blog everyday and lately everyone has been writing about Hurricane Katrina and her effects. In no way do I want to minimize the devastation she has caused to the Gulf Coast. I have never lost a family member or friend in a hurricane but growing up on Guam I have lived through my fair share of typhoons. Basically they are different names for the same thing, when you mix water and wind; the results can be very destructive. Read more about the differences here.

Our first typhoon was Super Typhoon Pamela (May 1976), with wind gusts of 140-160 mph and up to 187 mph. Our family was living in an apartment and after the water began to creep into our home, we fled to a friend’s home. We stayed there for a while, I don’t recall how long but when were came back to our apartment, it was gone. Pamela destroyed abut 90% of all the homes on Guam.

Over the next, 16 years or so, until I left for college, we experienced many typhoons, Russ, Omar, Yuri, Pongsona, and more. When a tropical storm approaches the island, it’s obvious because of the rain. If that storm somehow metamorphoses into a typhoon, Guam has a typhoon warning system that alerts its people. It’s not a perfect system but it helps. When the island has reached Condition 2, a typhoon is predicted to strike in 24 hours. Now is the time to stock up on food, water, batteries, candles, and other emergency supplies. Also windows are boarded up, animals are taken indoors and as many things as possible are secured around our home. Condition 1, means the typhoon is due in 12 hours. People who still live in non-concrete homes rush to schools and take shelter there as they wait for the storm to pass.


After the storms it was quite normal not to have running water for a couple of weeks and not to have any electricity for a few weeks also. I remember as a child taking a bath in a 50 gallon oil drum that we had places outside to collect rain. As a teenager I even ran off to the beach to watch the big waves roll in. On year when I was away at school, Guam was hit by 5 typhoons in a row. My sister Kentra has a t-shirt that proclaims she is a Typhoon Ace since she survived all 5. There are two typhoons however that I am glad not to have experienced. Typhoon Karen (Nov. 1962), it is said there was so much rain when she slammed into the island that graves floated up from their resting places. Super Typhoon Paka is infamous and will remain so until another Super Typhoon replaces him. With wind gust of up to 236 mph, it caused 500 million dollars of damage to Guam but miraculously no one was killed.

I feel for all those suffering from Hurricane Katrina. May the Gulf Coast make a speedy recovery.