Typhoon Jelawat Ripped Through Okinawa
This was a fast moving storm passing through Okinawa, Japan Saturday September 29, 2012.
Here are some of the photos I took Saturday night and Sunday morning in my travels.
Winds over 100MPH can toss refrigerators around and that's what we have here.
Sheets of aluminum and rain gutters get ripped loose and fly through the air.
Corrugated fiberglass and metal roofing materials become projectiles.
As these objects sail through the air, they cut people and power-lines.
Few people dare to go outside and secure these flying objects during the storm.
Roads can get blocked and become impassible.
Live power-lines can be found lying in the streets.
When the sun sets, you can tell where power has been lost.
Flashlights, candles and gas lanterns are the only lights you see.
By Sunday Morning the Typhoon Was Gone
Heading south from Kin Village to Itoman, I stopped to take some photos along the way.
The red object is a drink-vending machine. They can weigh close to half a ton.
The Village of Yaka must have been hit pretty hard.
The crew working alongside the highway was replacing concrete power poles.
These things are about 100cm in diameter, and reinforced with steel rods.
The storm snapped them like they were toothpicks !
This metal building was demolished.
Here is the remnants of a Soba shop, I'd been meaning to visit. It's gone.
The Central and Southern Part of the Island
There were many places where the traffic lights weren't working and traffic got congested.
So, I didn't stop to take photos, though, I'd have liked to.
You could see where emergency crews had removed large fallen trees.
The tree stumps and roots had lifted the sidewalks when they had fallen in the road.
At intersections where the power was on, signals were twisted to where you couldn't see them.
Thousands of folks had no electricity.
The few gasoline stations, in operation, had vehicles lined up at the pumps.
The Itoman Tug-O-War was my destination.
At the port, someone's boat, in dry dock, had been blown over on its side.
The winds died down and the skies were blue, most of the day, Sunday.
On the return trip to Kin last night, I noticed the lights in Yaka and Igei, were still out.
Hopefully, they had their electricity restored, today.
Typhoon Jelawat may be gone from Okinawa but, it's time to get ready for the next one.
