Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweetpea
100 year or 50 year, who cares if it happens to you! I hope everything is alright with your family and friends!
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Family I don't have to worry about, but there are quite a few here who are a bit worried. I know some folks who have been out of touch since the storm and I'm hoping to get some news, but I'm not grieving or suffering like some are (and not to sound too insensitive, but there are a few people who are hamming it up pretty hardcore for the press).
The highest rainfall estimates were I think from Chiayi and Kaohsiung areas, which were around 100+ inches. Pretty impressive for a couple days really.
Most of the problems were in poorly drained areas and in the mountains where folks never quite learn from the previous lessons and rebuild their homes on the same site thinking that next time it will just be their neighbors and not their own house that gets wiped. The bigger cities fared pretty well.
In Taipei where I am, for instance...sure it was rainy and windy, but that didn't stop me from going to the coffee shop or 7eleven to have a sandwich on my day off work. No waist-high flooding in the streets or dramatic mudflows. The hotel that everyone saw fall down on youtube or on the news was a pretty shoddy place in Taitung whose demise was pretty expected. I recall choosing not to stay there once for the same reason a few years ago, when the weather was nice.
Just like most disaster relief projects, there will be hiccups and bad patchwork repair and promises of flood prevention systems that will get improved only around Taipei. It's all very unfortunate, but perhaps some good will come of it.
Anyways, sorry if I'm derailing the thread!
