Photos

Typhoon Krosa hit Taipei today. In the approximately five years I have been here, this is the biggest storm I have experienced. When typhoons hit, it is quite usual to shut down government offices, schools and a few other places. This time, most small businesses were shuttered and they even shut down the MRT (subway) system.

Usually, typhoons end up being much ado about nothing, at least here in Taiwan. Today though, I think they actually made the right call in shutting things down. The wind was nasty and I saw on the news that there was quite a lot of damage. This morning though, we had hospital stuff to do, so we were out anyways. On the way home from the hospital, we stopped at Starbucks and this was taken from pretty much right in front of the coffee shop. The alley between the MRT station and the buildings seemed to be a real funnel for the wind and crossing was somewhat dangerous. People would wait on the other side until there was a lull and then dash madly across. Here, a group makes a dash.

I am happy to say that standing in this very spot, I was somewhat helpful today too. While making his dash, one middle aged gent got hit with a gust just before reaching the shelter of the building and tumbled. I was lucky to catch him, or he would have done a pretty good face plant. Maybe I will upload his photo into a workshop.