The Big Typhoon

By: Renee Chen

           It was a normal day as I went to school and was late because of my brother as usual. The whole day at school everyone looked scared and worried. There was plenty of whispering and shocked faces. In lunch my friends were talking about something I didn't know about. I asked what it was and that was when everything went downhill.

           "Hey, what are you guys talking about?"

           "Oh just about the typhoon coming to Taiwan! Did you know, it could be the biggest typhoon in history!"

           So, it turned out there was a huge typhoon coming to Taiwan and it could be the biggest one ever! I didn't really care until it finally came. The school had canceled class because of the typhoon.

           At first it was just normal rain and wind. Until the house started to shake. It was a little unusual but it always happens when there are big winds. I walked to my mom's room casually to report this. She said it was okay and normal being that we are living by the Ocean in 10th floor, which is the highest point in our apartment.

           Then that's when everything went WAY downhill. My mother got a phone call from my grandparents saying that one of there biggest main bedroom windows have fell!

           "Hello?"

           "Hello! Yes yes, the window in are main bedroom has fallen and we need more people to help us hold it up!"

           "Okay, we will come down now to help you."

           We rushed out to see the glass by the stairs swaying from side by side and the staircase wiggling violently.

           We then went down with the elevator to 9th floor to see my grandparents in their bed room holding up the window. Right away my father took charge and told everyone to help them hold up the window.

           "Everyone get to the window and hold it up, whenever wind blows release your push a little bit." My dad instructed.

           Everyone was in great sport holding the window up using all there might, everyone except for me. Everyone was older then me as I was only 11 years old and my brother was 3 years older than me. So I was pretty much the youngest, the weakest, and the most useless one.

          Because it was my first ever huge natural disaster that I have ever experienced I was just cowering behind a chair with my favorite blanket. I tried to hold a camera to help out and take a video for them. Though I'm sure the footage is just shaking so much, being that I was so scared and I was shaking my skin of!

          Then everything went even WORST on my part. My parents told me to get tape and our maid from our house upstairs. I was horrified to go up the elevator by myself in the storm being that you should never go on a elevator in a natural disaster. Since it could break midway and you would be stuck. But I suck upped my fear and when up stairs. When I was going up in the elevator it shook and moved side to side as it moved up. As I got to my house I started to panic even more. I ran to the kitchen where I found my maid.

          "Hey! Grandma's window has fallen! Find as much tape as you can! HURRY!"

          "Oh, okay." She said with no signs that she is aware of our troublesome situation.

           I ran into my room to find tape. When I went out to check on my maid she was taking to time slowly looking through all the cupboards very slowly. It was like she didn't get that we were in huge trouble!

           We then went down to my grandmother's house downstairs. As my family held up the heavy window my grandparents were just walking around the room doing nothing and offering me food, telling me to eat outside. As angry as I was at them, I forgave them because I was very scared and all I wanted to do is to cuddle with someone to feel safe and secure. After a while my mom went upstairs to check on the house. When she came back down she announced that in are house in the main bedroom the same window had fell down too. We then separated into two groups. By this time everyone agreed that I was useless and told me to go upstairs.

           After a while my dad and his amazing brain had fixed our house's window with wooden boards. By the time that happened the wind started to blow the other way. There was no more heavy winds blowing against the windows, only occasional medium winds. We then settled down taking turns leaning against the window to make sure it didn't fall again. While waiting for the people to fix the windows to come we were looking through the internet. My grandpa found many videos of one of our shipyard's cranes falling onto our shipyard building, one of our ships sinking and another ship that carries oil slowly getting blown away by the wind.

           When everything was controllable and all the winds were one hundred percent blowing the other way we went back to our house up stairs and started cleaning up the house from the big disaster. While I eat lunch I realized that that was my FIRST ever natural disaster. I talked to my mother about everything that happened. She made me feel better by telling me that it was true, it was my first ever huge natural disaster and it was fine to be scared.

          "Mom"

          "Yes?"

          "I just realized that this was my first ever big natural disaster!"

          "Your right!"

           "But I felt so useless! I didn't do anything! I just sat there doing nothing!"

           "It's fine, you didn't do anything wrong! This was good experience don't you think?

           "I guess you are right..."

           "Yeah! Now you have experience!"

           I forgave myself for being so useless. I soon calmed down and went back to my normal life.

           The next day my mother and I decided to look around the apartment to see if there were any other damage. WE found out that two of our glass doors on the rooftop has shattered. Followed by out wood boards on the rooftop getting infested with termites, the wood is molding and many wood planks could fall if you step on it! And along with one of our company car's window getting shattered form something flying and hitting it.