Hurricane Irene! We have experienced many a typhoon while living in Japan, so we werent too concerned about the hurricane as we kind of new what to expect. The only diference this time was that the village where we live is below sea level and is prone to flooding. LUckily we live in a 4th floor apartment so again we werent too concerned. The hurricane was due to hit late into the night and be in full force during the night. At around 4pm we had a knock on the door saying that there was a mandatory evacuation, after runnning around, asking and calling various people we found out that the evacuation wasnt mandatory for us only for all the houses around us.
We knew that the apartment would be ok but the problem was whether the electricity would fail.
So in the end we were flooded in for a day with about a metre and a half of water keeping us indoors, there were boats and kayaks in and out of what the car park should be! and we were without electricity for 2 days. Luckily we had gas so we could cook and have hot water.
Having a baby we though that it would be better to be stuck in rather than stuck out. We stocked up on food stuffs, although the shelves at the local supermarket were quite empty by the time we got there.
We were so lucky in scomparison to those around us, some people lost a lot of things and were without electicity for much longer than us.
Here are some photos.
