Wind Day!

No School today! We are having a freakish wind storm that even the local people are mouth agape at.

Yesterday, I went to Dalian to try to buy a webcam. (still no luck yet, but I ordered one that should arrive in the middle of the week) The weather was windy and rainy when I left, but not too bad. I wore a warm sweater but no coat. When we attempted to leave Dalian, it was very difficult to get a taxi to the railway station because everyone wanted taxies yesterday and there were fewer on the street due to the bad weather. The wind was whipping by this time and it was biting cold on my ears. After about 15 minutes, we got a cab. He dropped us at a somewhat remote lightrail station and took off. When we got to the doors of the lightrail station, they were locking them and the cab was long gone. We think maybe there was too much ice on the lines. We jogged across the parking lot slipping and sliding in the ever increasing wind and were very lucky to have another cab approach and drop people off as we approached. Although, now that I think about it, we took their cab, and they were probably going to the lightrail as well.

Anyway, we negotiated a ride to Kai Fa Qu to drop off my friend May, and then possibly a ride to Jin Shi Tan. As we drove to Kai Fa Qu, the wind picked up even more, and along the way, the weather became more and more perilous. We saw car after car that was smashed up on the side of the road. As we entered into the limits of Kai Fa Qu, I was getting very nervous and the driver was moving at a crawling pace. The ice was piling up on the windsheild. Out the window, signs were ripping off buildings. Debris was floating everywhere in the air. Glass was smashed out of the top windows of the highrises. The driver said he would not take me to Jin Shi Tan. He said he wished he had never accepted our fair. But he was kind and calm.

I called Brian to let him know where I was and he said he was stuck at the Kerren Hotel, so we went there to meet him. While I was on the phone with him, I saw a man cowering on the street on his knees, covering his head for protection, as the wind was sliding him rapidly backward along the sidewalk. The giant glass bulb in the street lamp over our head fell out and smashed to the pavement in front of the taxi. Giant peices of sheet metal from the construction site were whipping through the air. We crept by large groups of Chinese people standing under the bus shelter and a huge peice of debris fell on them. Many Chinese people were wrapped around the trees holding on to not get pulled away by the wind. Other people were getting pulled away and clinging to their friends in groups to create mass. Lisa later said it is the one time to be glad you are big. It was crazy!

I got to the Kerren Hotel and had dinner with Brian. Lisa and Robert were there as well and had their car with them. They decided to try to return to Jin Shi Tan, and after a while, we left to get Mr Wu and head home. May tried twice to leave the building to get a taxi or bus home (20 minutes away), but could not. Many people were stranded in the lobby, and eventually, she got a room and stayed the night at the hotel. The drive to Jin Shi Tan was much more safe, because there were not many people on the road and we were away from construction debris, which I think was the main danger. We made it home slowly and safely, called parents and canceled school (which was an adventure in communication!) and lost our power, running around in the dark halls and playing for a while before bed. That part was fun, but I was really wound up by that point.

Today the weather is sunny and bright, but very windy. Here at school, one of the temporary buildings for construction has tipped over. All the new trees along a section of the roadside have been ripped out along with their blue tarp wind barrier. Last night I heard that the wind estimated for today was goiing to be a 7-8 out of a scale that goes to ten? But the worst storm here ever scored a 12? I don't know exactly, but something like that.