August 2003

Happy (Your Day Here) Posted Sunday, August 10, 2003, 6:54 PM, CDT by Hank Lot's of events yesterday and today: Caitlin Carter's Birthday, Robert & Danetta Steinmeyer's Anniversary, Robert Steinmeyer's Birthday, and Bob Bilyeu's Birthday. Congrats everyone.

Typhoon Etau has passed Posted Thursday, August 7, 2003, 7:28 AM, CDT by Hank Well that was exciting. The typhoon did very little damage as it went past. The gusts shot up to 85-100 mph a few hours ago when an arm of the typhoon pealed off the eye and "back-handed" us as it was leaving. When the winds got down to 35 mph, our OIC decided it was safe enough for a couple new people to come relieve us from work. (We were scheduled to be there 8 hours, but ended up being there 13) The winds picked up a little bit as we left, and we drove home in 50-55 mph winds again gusting to at least 70. It was great, but really blew my van around. When I got home the power was still off so we played Trivial Pursuit Junior for a while by candlelight and flashlight. Finally the winds quieted down a lot and and hour or so later the power came back on. You could hear the cheers go up in housing as all the lights came on. Our power had been off for about 12 hours and the Typhoon had started getting bad about 23 hours earlier. Our first Typhoon turned out pretty good. Jordan thought it was cool, Dawn thought it was boring, Alyssa thought it was scarey, and Ashlyn didn't care. I really would prefer to not have to brave high winds to go to work in it, and having no electricity wasn't cool, but other than that it was fun. This place is Typhoon Central so I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them. No problem.

The eye has passed Posted Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 9:23 PM, CDT by Hank Here is a shot of the eye passing about 45 miles east of Okinawa as Typhoon Etau travels north towards mainland Japan. Since the eye never went directly over us we are not getting any break what-so-ever until this thing passes. The fastest winds reported so far have been about 100mph but that was a few hours ago shortly after I got to work. The rain has slowed down and we are mainly getting a 50 mph warm stinging misty wind. It's whistling through the ceiling of the building here at work, but everything is holding well and there's nothing to be concerned about. I've peeked outside and there does not appear to be any major damage, just some tree branches and other light things scattered all over the place. The power went off in base housing so Dawn isn't too happy about that and seems to be getting a little stir-crazy. The phone still works though. Power should be fixed after the winds die down enough--within the next 6 hours hopefully.

Typhoon Etau is definately HERE. Posted Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 4:28 PM, CDT by Hank I'm at work right now--I had to drive here in 50mph winds gusting to 70mph. I wasn't so sure that was a safe thing to do, but I made it here ok and didn't get blown off the road. The winds are still supposed to get worse this morning and start to get better sometime tonight. This means I'll probably be here all day. Dawn and the kids are fine at home. The winds haven't caused any damage, but rain is getting forced up underneath the front door and through the edges of windows. The weather outside right now is crazy--I had to walk at an angle into the wind and rain to get from the parking lot to the building where I work. I had on my water-proof Gortex jacket, but from the waste down I was literally as wet as if I had waded through a pool. I had to change into some dry clothes I brought in and wring out my uniform pants and socks. If anything else cool happens I'll post it. The storm is supposed to be it's closest (worst) here in about 3-4 hours. (about 4:00PM PST) Once again check here for the latest pictures of the storm.

Who's that knocking on our door?........ Posted Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 7:40 AM, CDT by Hank Check this out. Winds near the eye are about 133 miles per hour right now. The winds HERE are supposed to be pick up to 58 miles per hour in a couple hours from now and reach 70-100 miles per hour as the storm passes by us (faster if it goes directly over us.) We'll probably will see winds greater than 58 mph for about 20-24 hours after they begin (I can hear the wind picking up now as I type.) The typhoon is going about 15 miles per hour and traveling north towards us. Click the picture on the right to see the forecasted path and where we are located. (The satellite photo is about 4-5 hours old right now so it's really even closer.) Don't worry though, we are safe in our concrete home that has seen much worse storms than this.

Typhoon Etau Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2003, 6:11 PM, CDT by Hank OK, so it looks like Etau IS gonna be a problem. It's picking up speed and size and will be hitting us some time tomorrow. They even cancelled the base exercise this week because of it. For the latest on the storm, you can click here for the Joint Typhoon Warning Center Webpage. Click the link next to "TC Warning Graphic" for a picture of the current location and forcasted path. The little island above where it says "Naha" is where we are at.

Happy Birthday Dawn Posted Sunday, August 3, 2003, 2:34 PM, CDT by Hank Dawn is the same age as me for a few months! I'm currently in the middle of yet another excercise so I couldn't do too much--just got her a couple cards from me and the kids, an icecream cake, and some flowers. I'd already "upgraded" her diamond earrings in July to better quality stones, so that was her main present. Tropical Storm Etau is currently headed this way--sorta. It's coming at us from the southeast and looks like it will be vearing north before it ever gets here. We might catch the edge of it on the 6th or 7th, but I'm not sure we'll even get that much. This latest exercise will be going all week...I'll end up working 8 days in a row (6 12-hr shifts and 2 8-hour shifts). Fun.