EPTI live in the Philippines, we average 20 typhoons annually, and last Tuesday, we just got hit by a pretty darn strong one. Usually we don't suffer power outages during storms, so we just stay in our houses, take care of roof leaks, make sure flood does not get in the house, etc.
However, last Tuesday was different, universities, government offices, and some offices suspended operations. I woke up at 8am, greeted by dark skies and rain. By around 10am there was no electricity. Well, this was an issue because our cookers run on electricity. We drove around in the rain, the streets were empty, branches and leaves were on the road, most fast food places were closed. Good thing there was a McDo open. The line was long ans they were understaffed. Some stayed to charge their laptops while browsing the net (free wifi) for news. 3G/Data Plan was still working so I managed to get news off of social media. The storm was leaving Philippine landmass by 12nn, but no one knows when electricity will be back. Thinking that the worst was over, we decided to go to the mall and buy things (butane, butane cookers, etc). I think we got home by 9, electricity was back. Then thats when I checked the news and saw how bad things went for other people. Power was out, there was flood here and there, some schools suspended kinder to high school classes until Saturday.
Wednesday looked bright. I knew some places still didnt have power yet, but I knew it was a matter of time before they got it back. I live in the part of the Philippines that is a giant landmass (the big island called Luzon), its not that difficult to get to places to restore powerlines and clean up debris since the flood subsided already and the government uses trucks anyway. However, yesterday was different, things looked bright until power was cut at around 3pm. Apparently, rotational brownouts/blackouts had to be implemented.
These rarely is an inconvinence for us. As someone born early 90s, we experienced 12 hour long power outages from 1998 to 2000s, so when power go out, we just pull out the board games or do spring cleaning. It is also not as bad today since we got tablets and smartphones and powerbanks (or our laptops). Suriving a blackout isn't that difficult nowadays. The power company announced that the 4 hour rotational blackouts will be a thing until the 22nd. But hey, at least we know they're on it and it's not like we are going in dark until then.
Blackout isn't the big issue.
Storms are pushing for rax. After the storm last Tuesday, another storm is due to enter our area of responsibility over the weekend. The thing is, the eye may be far away from land but it will start to shower and rain already (there is light drizzle as I type, sky is still bright btw). The last time I checked the weather website, there werr at least 2 more LPAs after this storm (Link is here but slow 3g net takes forever to load that image).
We havent had these much consecutive storms until around 5 years ago. I know we will make it through these pushes, but I hope there would not be that much damage. Trees were uprooted (even the university I went to college to was a mess), houses got torn apart, roofs flying. I think there's been less than 10 casualites last time I checked. I hate how most of our high ranking government officials lack foresight even after Haiyan.
