The thing about a typhoon is...

The one that hit Taiwan Friday was unlike any seen in 50 years, according to a newspaper I picked up yesterday. Or more true to how it happened, according to a polyglot who had glanced over my shoulder to view the image of destruction on the front page and the headline which I could not read except for the roman numerals 5 and 0.

I suppose what made this one so terrible was the erosion. The winds weren't relatively fast since it was a low grade storm, but the system hovered over the island as if stuck on the mountain ridge that runs along the length of Taiwan. It dumped an enourmous amount of rain, which ran down the mountains as it gathered more water, soil and speed. From my water management class this semester I know one of nature's most destructive forces is fast-moving mud. It scours out vast gouges in water channels and tears down anything standing in its path. I saw a video of a 6-story hotel that leaned over the bank after the mud flow had undercut the foundation. The foundation continued to be swept away, and once the tipping point had been reached, and the entire building toppled over into the raging current.

Lucky for me, the part of the island where I am seemed to escape the worst of it. We hung around in the eye of the storm on Saturday, when the the air was still and dry, and nearly all scheduled flights departed from the airport. Except mine, and that granted me three more days in Taiwan, which would have been great if there hadn't been a typhoon.