Friday, April 24, 2009

Wild winds

Wednesday night was a scary night..

Even now, my roselle and blue peas are recovering from it.

Channel NewsAsia had this to say: "The National Environment Agency (NEA) says a tropical storm is the reason for the strong winds which blew into Singapore Wednesday night. A wind speed of up to 83 kilometres per hour was recorded -- the strongest in nearly nine years. Among the damage caused - fallen trees and a broken construction crane."

Broken construction crane? Wow.

But it was really quite scary. We don't stay too high up - only on the 5th and 6th level, but because of our apartment's location and the fact that we don't really have other buildings blocking our view, the wind really hit us on Wednesday...

For one, Mr Umbrella had to be hulled near the wall. Mr Umbrella, is our balcony umbrella. A really strong, heavy and sturdy square umbrella, who usually stands closed and quietly. But he really looked as if he'd open up and fly off if we didn't drag him to a corner. And in doing so, our beautiful decking got badly scratched.

Ms Yellow Hibiscus (who gets white flies attacks all the time) collapsed and so did Mr Palm, Ms Roselle. Our balcony furniture - a resin chair and a wooden bench was toppled over by the winds.

My husband and I had to go out in the rain, putting everything by the wall and then climbing back to bed, wishing for the best.

It was a really scary night.

The morning after, my balconies were in a horrific mess.

Isn't it quite amazing what a strong wind can do? It makes me think.. we.. or rather I, take our surroundings and weather in Singapore for granted a lot more than I should.

If I were in Hong Kong, or Japan, or even Beijing.. I'd never leave things just out in the balcony just like that.

Hm.. talking of which, I should go bring them indoors now.

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