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Misc » Typhoon Holiday
Live in Taiwan around mid-summer to fall, and you’d surely come to be familiar with days where business owners groan, general employees rejoice, and students cheer all around. In other words, we’re getting a typhoon holiday once again.
For days now, we’ve been hearing about a severe typhoon (Sinlaku) heading our way… which means the Taipei locals have either been happily anticipating the possibility of getting a paid day off or lamenting about the price of fruits and vegetables rocketing soon. Considering the fact that we’re talking about a category 4 typhoon, it’s kind of strange the people here aren’t dreading the incoming storm more. After all, typhoons are the cause of numerous deaths, injuries, and monetary losses to the country each year, but that’s exactly the kind of reaction I see most of the time here in Taipei.
Surely enough, when the official announcement from the government came through in the late afternoon for schools and businesses to be closed, there were people grinning about getting off work or school early and the likelihood of enjoying a few more days off. That’s not to say people don’t take the standard precautions and preparations like lining bags of sand along entrances to help prevent indoor flooding and taping up windows in case they shatter from the strong winds. It’s something that has become quite routine during a typhoon warning.
(Picture taken right after the announcement came through. 5 minutes later, the winds were so strong my umbrella snapped.)
On a more mundane level, you’ll also find long lines at supermarkets as people pile in to stock up on food for three general reasons: days’ supply of food in case the storm hangs around for a while, a rush to get some fruits and veggies before the price shoots up in the aftermath, and finally, snacks galore for pigging out in front of the TV when you’re locked in for long hours. The latter goes hand in hand with Blockbusters across the city getting their shelves emptied at an amazing rate as people check out several DVDs at a time to keep themselves occupied during this period.
Reading and watching the news on typhoon reports, I often get this surreal feeling that it sounds so much more grim than actually living in it. On one hand, I’m hearing alerts and warnings going up… yet all around me, people are excited about getting a few days off. Many are already making plans for indoor activities like heading out to the KTV or the movie theaters, both of which are always packed during a typhoon.
I sometimes wonder if perhaps this kind of carefree reaction is more isolated to Taipei simply because we’re located in the main city where issues like mudslides, houses caving in, major floods and electrical outages just aren’t as prominent as down south or in the countryside. It makes me think… are people just not taking the storm as seriously simply because they don’t get to feel the devastating consequences as much?
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