#nalgae

Guess we'd better stock up on supplies.

To reassure y'all, though--We're on a middle floor in a concrete building designed by a mining engineer, on the inward-facing side of a small valley--about 40 feet above the valley floor, and about 20 feet below the top--and well-situated for protection from storms coming in from the East, like this one (and most of them, frankly).

And see this wall? Solid reinforced KONK KREET, baby! WIth a hefty metal door and frame.

And this is what our windows look like:

All our windows face North and West, and we have an overhang.

Basically, even with the worst earthquakes and super-typhoons we've had, we've not seen so much as a cracked window pane. The worst that has happened to us is losing power and/or Internet for a bit, so I'm pretty sure we'll be fine.

Our biggest worries are infrastructure damage, but we generally keep between twenty and thirty gallons of drinking water on hand, and the property has a deep well, so as long as there's power for the pump, we'll have washing water, too. Might have to go out every couple of hours to clear the balcony drains to keep water from seeping under the front door during the worst of the downpour, but whatever.

We also have a couple of charged power banks for our phones. If I go offline this weekend, it'll be because internet, electricity, AND cell towers went down--which is pretty unlikely.

Le bilan de la tempête Nalgae qui a frappé fin octobre les Philippines s’élève à 150 morts, ont indiqué, jeudi 3 novembre, les autorités; de nouvelles pluies sont attendues dans les régions les plus frappées par les inondations et glissements de terrain précise l’AFP.

MANILA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Philippine search and rescue teams pulled bodies from water and thick mud on Friday, bringing to 42 the death toll from flooding and landslides triggered by a storm, with dozens more feared buried.

Eleven bodies were retrieved in the southern province of Maguindanao, which was hit hard by approaching tropical storm Nalgae, said Naguib Sinarimbo, interior minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao (BARMM).

Rescue and retrieval operations are temporarily suspended overnight and will resume Saturday morning, Sinarimbo said, as more people were feared still trapped under mud and flood waters, particularly in the town of Datu Odin.

"Based on the assessment on the ground, at that specific site, there were many (who got buried). The number might hit 80, but we are hoping it won't reach that number," Sinarimbo said via phone.

Authorities have evacuated thousands of people out of the path of Nalgae, which could possibly make landfall Friday night in Samar province in central Philippines, disaster officials said.

Sinarimbo said the rainfall in Maguindanao province had exceeded expectations.

"There were preparations made but unfortunately, the rainfall was more than what people had expected," Sinarimbo said.

In another southern province, Sultan Kudarat, rescue workers used rubber boats to get to residents trapped in chest-deep waters, images shared by the coast guard showed.

Landslides and floods are frequent in the Philippines, due in part to the growing intensity of tropical cyclones that regularly batter the country. The Philippines sees an average 20 typhoons a year.

Tropical storm Nalgae, packing winds of 75 km (47 miles) per hour, forced flight cancellations just as thousands of people were planning to travel to their home towns to observe All Souls Day. Schools were also shut down and some ports saw operations paralysed.