Typhoon survivors A planeload of typhoon-weary travelers arrived in Honolulu last night from Guam, which narrowly escaped a second storm Tuesday night.
land in Hawaii
Storm-weary travelers recall the
experience of enduring Chata'anBy Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com"I come from Kansas and tornadoes, but I've never been so scared in my life," said Tom Myer, who was on Guam for business from San Diego.
"I'm glad I survived," added Rosalind Ram of Laie. She arrived to her husband and three children to greet her. "If (the second storm) had hit us, it would have just made everything worse," said Ram, who flew to Guam July 2 for her father's 70th birthday.
President Bush declared Guam a disaster area after it was battered by Typhoon Chata'an's 100-mph winds on Friday. Damage was extensive, with much of the island still without electricity and water.
Recovery efforts on Guam were halted when Typhoon Halong appeared to threaten the island. Halong passed 90 miles south of Guam at around 3 p.m. yesterday (7 p.m. Tuesday, Hawaii time) with wind gusts of less than 60 mph. The weather on Guam is expected to improve.
Trevor Ram, 12, spoke to his mother by phone before Halong was supposed to hit Guam. He said, "She just kept asking me to pray for them that the second storm doesn't hit them."
Rosalind Ram, whose family lives in Malojloj on the southern end of the island, which was hit the worst, collected rainwater in barrels for toilets and went to low-lying areas where water was available.
Ram said many of the locals were not too concerned about Chata'an and were unprepared. But when they received warning of Halong, they made sure they had a supply of batteries and gas for generators, she said.
Seattle tourist Trish Anderson said she saw things "going sideways, and the walls were bubbling up with water." After the eye of Chata'an passed, Anderson, her husband and friends left their rooms for chips and beer at the hotel lobby shop. When they returned to their rooms, "the tail end hit and that was worse."
They tried to peek out but could not open their doors, "the pressure was so great." They later saw the aftermath, however, with downed power lines and huge uprooted trees.
Anderson was impressed by the hospitality of the Guamanians.
"They were worried they couldn't take us around," Anderson said.
Chris Benavente, on his way to San Antonio for basic training, was just happy to be "going to a place with power and water."
While most locals took the typhoon in stride, business traveler Myer said three days after Chata'an, a fight broke out at a laundromat because everybody was without clothes and the one laundromat had water.
Before hitting Guam, Chata'an killed at least 39 people in Chuuk state in Micronesia. After Guam the typhoon was downgraded to a tropical storm but still killed 37 people in the Philippines.
Along Japan's Pacific coast, Chata'an swept past Tokyo causing little damage today, but pounded northern Japan with heavy rains, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate and killing at least one 13-year-old boy.