Being nice:
[quote]All you need to know about typhoons:
Taiwan gets hit by 3-4 typhoons each year on average, usually between July and September, although its weather is affected by a few more passing nearby. Typhoons can bring violent winds, tearing pieces of roofs off, downing signs, and creating a lethal hazard with flying debris. Severe flooding in low-lying areas is also a hazard, as are landslides.
If you’re moving to Taiwan, be sure to find out whether an area is prone to flooding before moving into an apartment, and be sure to live on the 2rd floor or above (3rd is even better) and make full emergency preparations if you do settle down in such an area. In Taipei, for example, ask whether the area under consideration flooded during Nari typhoon in 2001. Don’t just ask the landlord, who may lie to you in order to rent the place out. Ask a number of neighbors before you sign the lease.
By June, be sure to have everything you need to ride the storms out comfortably – see preparedness section below. If you are living in a reinforced concrete structure with storm glass windows, you won’t need to evacuate like they do in the US, where structures are flimsier. But you will likely be stuck indoors for a day or two, and might be cut off from power, roads, etc. for a week or so in a worst case scenario.
During the June to Oct. season, you should make a habit of checking for typhoon warnings every 2-3 days at least, and don’t go on any 2-day hikes (or longer) without some means of checking on the weather while out there.
…
How to read the Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecasts
The typhoon center is shown with its past history as black circles, taken like snapshots every 6 hours; hollow circles show the storm’s weak beginnings; solid ones are stronger. Its forecast future position is shown in happy little pink dots, so the direction of its path is from black to pink. There are dates attached to the pink dots showing the present and future forecast positions. 2618Z, as in the present position in the above example, is the 26th, at 18:00 hours (that’s 6pm), and Z stands for Zulu time. To get from Zulu time (GMT) to Taipei time, have another beer and add 8 hours; the center dot at that position is therefore where the storm will be centered at 2am on the 27th, our time.
The typhoon itself is much bigger than the center of the happy little pink dot thingies. The size of the storm isn’t shown, but the outer pink circles with notches show the extent of the area where the wind speed is at least 35 knots (17.5 m/s or 39 mph or 63 kph), which is one way to show the storm’s size.
For a satellite image of the storm’s real size, you can see the storm clouds of the typhoon and their size and distance in relation to Taiwan by going to a different link on the JTWC site, entitled Multispectral Satellite Imagery or the Satellite Imagery links at the mirror sites.
Note that typhoons don’t start at the edge of some magic circle. You could get walloped by an outer feeder arm of the storm before the ‘storm’ hits; or you could be well within the ‘storm area’ and have blue sky. As a storm approaches, you can generally expect to have blustery weather with periodic, sudden downpours.
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forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtop … t#p1617304
Maybe this:
[quote]When preparing for a possible emergency situation, it’s best to think first about the basics of survival: fresh water, food, clean air and warmth.
Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit:
□ Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
□ Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
□ Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
□ Flashlight and extra batteries
□ First aid kit
□ Whistle to signal for help
□ Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
□ Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
□ Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
□ Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
□ Local maps
□ Cell phone with chargers
Additional Items to Consider Adding to an Emergency Supply Kit:
□ Prescription medications and glasses
□ Infant formula and diapers
□ Pet food and extra water for your pet
□ Important family documents such as copies of insurance policies, identification and bank account records in a waterproof, portable container
□ Cash or traveler’s checks and change
□ Emergency reference material such as a first aid book or information from ready.gov
□ Sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person. Consider additional bedding if you live in a cold-weather climate.
□ Complete change of clothing including a long sleeved shirt, long pants and sturdy shoes. Consider additional clothing if you live in a cold-weather climate.
□ Household chlorine bleach and medicine dropper – When diluted nine parts water to one part bleach, bleach can be used as a disinfectant. Or in an emergency, you can use it to treat water by using 16 drops of regular household liquid bleach per gallon of water. Do not use scented, color safe or bleaches with added cleaners.
□ Fire Extinguisher
□ Matches in a waterproof container
□ Feminine supplies and personal hygiene items
□ Mess kits, paper cups, plates and plastic utensils, paper towels
□ Paper and pencil
□ Books, games, puzzles or other activities for children[/quote]
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtop … d&start=30
Being naughty:
[quote]Chinese New Year in Taiwan is a special time when families get together and have conversations watch TV. People enjoy giving carefully selected gifts that they know the recipient will love cash in red envelopes. And watching TV.
Food plays an important part, also. The tables are set with grandma’s best lace tablecloth plastic sheeting, and the good silverware, china and crystal plastic cups, pink paper plates and disposable chopsticks are laid out on a candlelit table lit by the unsteady glare of a flickering fluorescent tube.
The roast turkey is taken out of the oven dishes of food are covered in saran wrap, nuked in the microwave, and left to cool on the table hours before dinner. Because this is CNY, while eating, people are on their best behaviour watching TV, grunting and reaching across the table to get desired morsels of food. Children under the age of 12 remember to say please and thank you are hand-fed by their over-indulgent mothers, and people take extra care to remember their table manners spit out chicken bones and shrimp shells into crystal bowls little paper boxes made of folded up junk mailers.
After dinner, the family sits in the living room and talks watches TV some more. At night, people like to go outside and go caroling, sharing the joy and beauty of the season light fireworks on the city streets, the noiser the better.
After that people go back home and watch more TV. [/quote]
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtop … t#p1494858