8. Our first typhoon … what an experience.
Along about october or so in 1979 the farts, I mean AFRTS Radio was all abuzz over typhoon condition 3. What the h*ll is that? Bases were locking down and no POVs (Privately Owned Vehicles) were allowed on the streets unless the occupants were involved in mission critical travel. Wow, this was really gettin’ serious. We went to the store and acquired plenty of rations to ride out the coming storm. Plenty of duct tape for the windows and a couple sheets of plywood, just in case. We had left all the tools in storage in the states, so of course, we had to get tools also.
There was a hardware store about a mile from the house and the little okinawan guy was very helpful to these gaijins lookin’ at the tools. I often went to that little hardware store to buy all sorts of tools over the years and still have most of the tools that I bought. So we get back to our house, which was completely exposed to the elements, being on top of a hill surrounded by the ocean. Dad had done this before, so he knew the drill.
One would think that the way the radio was barking out the typhoon condition constantly that trouble was right around the corner. We had gotten a typhoon tracking map from somewhere and were plotting the location of the storm whenever they called out the coordinates. This thing was moving so, so, slowly. Over time the winds started to pick up pretty good. The waves on the ocean were getting pretty big. Rain was starting to fall pretty hard. By this time no personnel whatsoever, on base, were allowed outside their homes, not even mission critical?
The wind was not only starting to become deafening it was fierce. We were late in the afternoon when this thing reached its most deafening point, then it just howled all through the night. We didn’t dare leave the house, we weren’t allowed, were we? The third or fourth typhoon we discovered that the okinawans still move around and go shopping even in the worst of conditions, but, we didn’t know that in this first one so we stayed at the house. One of the windows broke, so me and dad and mike, lookin’ like fools go outside to get one of those pieces of plywood and we were gonna put it up over the broke window. So, we are outside in 100+ mph wind trying to hold this piece of plywood against the house so the old man can drive a screw into it to hold it. Mom is all a feared that one or all of us would get hurt really bad, yet, none of us did. We did get the plywood secured to the house, and while the wind howled we all went to bed. I’ll always remember that night, the howling of the wind and the roar of the ocean. I don’t think any of us slept very well. The next morning, the winds were dying down and we ventured out into the neighborhood.
Our little neighborhood resembled a war zone. Trees knocked down, streets filled with all kinds of stuff. As the neighborhood woke up, we all just started picking up the debris and throwing it away. None of the houses suffered much damage, except for our broke window. Most of the trees were still there, those trees are amazing, the amount of punishment they take three or four times a year. The whole neighborhood was cleaned up in a few hours. The winds were diminishing and life was getting back to normal. We replaced the window and all was again right with the world. We had all survived our first typhoon.
EDIT: I did a little fact checking and on wikipedia I found out it was Typhoon Tip October 1979, supposedly the largest recorded typhoon in history.
I remember typhoon Tip very well. It was approaching Okinawa as a super typhoon, what we refer to in the U.S. as a category five hurricane. The winds of Tip were approximately 190 miles per hour. It was of behemoth proportions, well over a thousand miles in diameter. I remember trying to comprehend winds that powerful. It did weaken considerably before hitting us, though. When it did hit, the winds were down to a little over a hundred mils an hour. Starting in typhoon condition one emergency, all outside activity is curtailed, with the exception of mission critical personnel. Living on Kadena at the time, I looked out the window frequently during the storm. The only vehicles I could see driving around were the Air Force Security Police, and one Ford Mustang POV. In 1972, there was a super typhoon named Rita that completely circled Okinawa before moving on to the north. Even though it didn’t hit us directly, we still had hundred mile an hour plus winds. In my three times living on Okinawa, I have lost count how many typhoons I have been through, but the average ones were in the one hundred ten to one hundred fourty five mile an hour range.
Comment by daveh5o — January 31, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
Hey, remember that older Japanese guy that would come down to the seawall below the house and bang on that drum for a few days before the typhoons would hit. I don’t remember him doing it every time. I do remember him doing it for Typhoon Tip. I have pictures somewhere of that. Perhaps you have them. As you have most of the family photos of that time.
Comment by kmichael — March 8, 2008 @ 1:48 am