TAIWAN hits second typhoon in six days! This is the report that was broadcast around the world on July 31, 1977 when Typhoon Vera hit the cities of Taipei and Keelung. Thelma, the typhoon that hit the southern cities of Kaohsiung and Fengshan on July 25, was the worst since 1952, but the damage to industry and the like is considered to be the greatest of all time. More than a third of factories on the island have been badly damaged or closed due to a lack of electricity. Newspapers reported that around 155 power line poles were sunk by the storm. Four thousand concrete bars are broken! It was the destruction that Typhoon Thelma brought with it.
Then, six days later, Typhoon Vera hit northern northern Taiwan, killing at least 38 people. Many more were damaged and hundreds of homes destroyed. The media published several photos of the damage, including photos of a steel tower used to build a passage in Taipei. He destroyed three buses and several cars when he met her.
Living in a typhoon
What is it like to live in a typhoon? These storms can be very gloomy. One house can be destroyed while the other is almost intact. The tracks of the typhoon can suddenly change, and so can Thelma. This typhoon apparently arrived in Kaohsiung without reaching the coast. Suddenly, the storm changed and wreaked havoc, affecting over a million people in the Kaohsiung area.
Typhoon Vera sustained minor damage to the Taipei branch of the Watch Tower Society. This led some of the younger missionaries to conclude that being in a typhoon was not that bad. However, the following report from the mission house on the fourth floor of the Fengshan apartment offers a different picture:
“We are very grateful that no one was injured. If someone had been in the dining room when a piece of asbestos roof covered our glass doors, they would likely have been seriously injured or even killed. ceiling smashed the doors at high speed. Hit a piece. Concrete on the porch, fold the aluminum crossbar over the doors, bounce off the floor in a cupboard and refrigerator, and smash them both with a hammer Broken glass shattered on the concrete, floor and walls, it happened, there were four of us the back porch which was sheltered from the wind, but after the doors opened the wind blew through the house, pushing the back door so hard it snapped the wood, around the lock, and the two of us had to kick us to stand against the opposite wall. "
Other damage to this house included breaking iron roof doors and throwing a 70 pound concrete slab from the top of the water tank on the roof of the washing machine at the house in the mission. , knead a lot and break the pipes in the tanks on the roof so that all the water is used up immediately. Books and personal effects were also damaged by the water. Electricity had not been restored after nine days of intense efforts by the energy company.
Many people were discovered when Thelma attacked.The wind was blowing through the building, swaying and shaking. Then the ceiling shattered with a terribly twisted sound. When the roof disappeared, it wasn't long before the wind blasted the walls and the factory literally disappeared in front of the workers!
The only way left was to try to get home. The young man crawled on his hands and knees when the wind got stronger and finally reached the solid pillar of a bridge. He clung to her and prayed to Jehovah God. After some time, the witness finally returned home to find that most of the roof was also on the outside of this building. There is no protection there. He fought in the nearby Kingdom Hall and managed to take refuge on the third floor of the building where the Hall is located. Even though most of the windows were broken and the roof was leaking, at least temporary protection was available.
Cleaning activity
After a typhoon comes the cleaning job. Since most of the houses in these cities were in apartment buildings and the inhabitants relied on electricity to pump water into the roof containers, most families soon ran out of water. Kaohsiung's mission house, on the top floor of a three-story building, was severely damaged. Only three windows were broken when the wind came behind the building where other structures protected them. But the roof was full of rubble from other destroyed buildings. The eight missionaries cleaned the roof and participated in the heavy rain that fell due to the typhoon. So they solved the water problem. Elsewhere, people could not do it. For example, the missionaries of the Fengshan Witnesses and their neighbors stood at a hand pump some distance away and carried water to their home on the fourth floor. As they said: “Yesterday I counted eighteen cubes that I loaded upwards.
Kaohsiung and Keelung are the two largest ports in Taiwan and both are very busy. According to the newspapers, Typhoon Thelma sank 32 ships and seriously injured 22 ships. It is estimated that it will take at least a year to repair all damage there. Then Typhoon Vera hit the northern part of the island, with Keelung harbor being hit the hardest. Three of the four container cranes for handling containers were seriously damaged. What a kind for this island that exports and imports large quantities of goods every day!
The cleaning work was hindered by a lack of electricity and water as well as damage to communication systems. For many locals, these were the hardest things to accept. However, much of Taiwan's food supply comes from the Kaohsiung area, and with the area temporarily flooded, vegetable prices have soared. Many vegetables, even water damaged, were sold up to 400% above the normal price. Pork and meat have not been in Kaohsiung for a while; That's why people lived on chicken when they could get it. The fishing boats could not go out for a while, like many people.
To make things work, the government called in soldiers and did much to speed up the clean-up. The electricity, water and telephone companies put their men to work day and night to restore the service. With the exception of the most damaged areas, electricity, water and telephone services have been restored in an extremely short time.