Pedring Blows Into Town

Typhoon Pedring (International name: Nesat) went through the Luzon area yesterday, with winds reaching up to 121 miles per hour. We'd been alerted about it a couple of days before it hit, so I made sure to charge every electronic device that can keep me occupied when a power failure occurs, which always happens.

I charged my mobile phone, DS, DS Lite, DSi XL, PSP, iPod, and laptop, in that order. The laptop was my least priority, since it was next to useless because I won't be able to access our broadband router anyway during the blackout.

So I managed to wake up early to the sound of wind and rain battering above me, and when I saw that we still had power, rushed downstairs to make coffee, because if I don't get to drink some freshly-brewed coffee before the day starts, I'll end up being miserable the entire day, and that's how mababaw I am these days, LOL.

And true enough, the lights went off just after breakfast. You gotta hand it to our ever-reliable *snark* electric ulitity company here; just when the rain and winds were slowing down, they decide to cut off the power. How's that for efficiency?

As always with typhoons of this type, the rains came in bursts, but the scariest part were the winds--you could hear it whipping through the air, and when you hear the simultaneous rattling of your neighbors' rooftops, you just didn't want to think about it.

bflavi's video of Roxas Blvd. as Pedring passes by

Paul Go's video of Roxas Blvd. during Typhoon Pedring
as posted by metromanila2011

The power was out for 14 hours, and during that time there really wasn't anything else to do but wait it out as Pedring proceeded to batter most of Metro Manila during the day. The Roxas Blvd. area near the Seawall was hit the hardest, with incoming waves turning the road into a river, as seen in two videos captured by people who lived nearby. I think this is the first time I saw that place covered in water, and hopefully it never happens again.

[Photo of Typhoon Nesat approaching the eastern Philippines taken by NASA's Terra satellite, from the NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team]