Alright, a storm is coming our way.

Thanks for this!

Cool, I like the storms!

ancientpathos wrote:

Cool, I like the storms!

Yah I think the Central had it's 2 recently so it's time for the South to get its turn.

So, how's the fishing up there AP?

sẽ có bão to đây.

I practiced saying that more than any phrase in the whole language.  CanNOT figure out how people can do those first three words like secabow and still get the tones right

Soooo.... where IS this big storm??? Been hearing about it all day today. Was supposed to hit at 3pm... then 4pm... then 7pm... Had a hard rain with some thunder at my house at about 7pm. Stopped after about 30 minutes, and now is dead-calm and roads dry. I'll believe it when I see/hear it.

saigonmonkey wrote:

Soooo.... where IS this big storm??? Been hearing about it all day today. Was supposed to hit at 3pm... then 4pm... then 7pm... Had a hard rain with some thunder at my house at about 7pm. Stopped after about 30 minutes, and now is dead-calm and roads dry. I'll believe it when I see/hear it.

a local newspaper just said that it was a mistake of weather forecast... Anyway, it was good that many companies let their employees left the office from 1/3pm...

It looks like it is just off the coast right now. http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/w … ion-Thirty

saigonmonkey wrote:

Soooo.... where IS this big storm??? Been hearing about it all day today. Was supposed to hit at 3pm... then 4pm... then 7pm... Had a hard rain with some thunder at my house at about 7pm. Stopped after about 30 minutes, and now is dead-calm and roads dry. I'll believe it when I see/hear it.

I'm getting a constant downpour here in VT.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

saigonmonkey wrote:

Soooo.... where IS this big storm??? Been hearing about it all day today. Was supposed to hit at 3pm... then 4pm... then 7pm... Had a hard rain with some thunder at my house at about 7pm. Stopped after about 30 minutes, and now is dead-calm and roads dry. I'll believe it when I see/hear it.

I'm getting a constant downpour here in VT.

I should have opened my Sea-Doo rental shop business in HCMC during the last flood.  Tomorrow would have been a very profitable day.

That last picture is hilarious!

Well that one was a bit of a damp squib... lets hope the one on Sunday is better, gotta love a good storm ;D

we had a similar flood in Calgary 4 months ago and it's costing the city billions of dollars in repairing the infrastructure not to mention hundreds of home having to be destroyed. People couldn't access their homes for weeks because the city deemed it too dangerous. The joys of having a basement. And the Vietnamese here were saying this flood is nothing compared to Vietnam and now I can understand why from those pictures.

jakejas wrote:

That last picture is hilarious!

Yah it was hard to find people riding on sea-doos with the right angle and heading.  My idea isn't far fetched...there was actually a guy using a canoe/row boat in the recent flood.



http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/14877/dow … -lash-hcmc

Hey gang,

I just saw a CNN report on that big storm, which is about to hit PI.  It looked pretty bad.  Vietnam is in its path...

We struggle with Vietnam in normal mode.  I highly doubt any of us will survive Vietnam in crisis mode.  So, especially those of you in the central area, keep an eye out for this thing and get yourself out of its way.

I notice that they keep building homes in flood run-off areas. There's a home construction project (My Gia) on the west side of Nha Trang in what used to be rice paddies. In August 1968 that land was under roughly 12 to 14 feet of water. I have a photo of a friend standing up to his knees in water on QL 1 between Nha Trang and Dien Khanh. What is not visible is the deuce and a half ton truck whose top he was standing on.

Good luck to anyone in the coming storms way. Don't get complacent. It's better to miss a good hurricane party than be at one when the wrong storm hits.

Wild_1 wrote:

Hey gang,

I just saw a CNN report on that big storm, which is about to hit PI.  It looked pretty bad.  Vietnam is in its path...

We struggle with Vietnam in normal mode.  I highly doubt any of us will survive Vietnam in crisis mode.  So, especially those of you in the central area, keep an eye out for this thing and get yourself out of its way.

Yah, Super Typhoon Hiayan is coming. 

http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/14914/vie … n-10-years

lirelou wrote:

I notice that they keep building homes in flood run-off areas. There's a home construction project (My Gia) on the west side of Nha Trang in what used to be rice paddies. In August 1968 that land was under roughly 12 to 14 feet of water. I have a photo of a friend standing up to his knees in water on QL 1 between Nha Trang and Dien Khanh. What is not visible is the deuce and a half ton truck whose top he was standing on.

Good luck to anyone in the coming storms way. Don't get complacent. It's better to miss a good hurricane party than be at one when the wrong storm hits.

Yah unfortunately FEMA hasn't made it's way over here yet.  FEMA actually produces these Floodplan Hazardous Maps that pretty much allow local cities/towns to prohibit building in those areas.  Or if you do want to build in a floodzone, you have to elevate your house big time.

Because these houses in Việt Nam are built during the dry season, they don't know where the flood level is and simply build them high up.  Roads, however, are built by just slapping some blacktop in the ground with no plans for drainage. 

Flooding here will get worse for three obvious reasons.

One, the soils in the ground are very clayish (unlike Sand) and water doesn't percolate through fast enough.   

Two, the water table is already high so any water that does go through the ground can't go down anymore.  When you have high tide, the water table is in the negative.

Three, when development sprawls, they usually add concrete or other impervious surfaces on top of the group, creating almost like a roof so the water has to keep moving to find it's way into the ground.  As I have driven around HCMC alot, I have seen very little "dirt" so the impervious area coverage of the city is probably 80-90%.  Where can the water go?

Also, did you guys know there are no sewage systems in Việt Nam?  Driving around I have yet to see a manhole with a "S" lid on it.  So where does all the human waste go?  It goes straight into the ground below the houses. 

Instead of a collective system that takes the human waste to a centralized treatment plant, the human waste hangs out underneath a house until it naturally filters into the ground.

So what happens when there's a flood?  It comes up onto the surface.  So in all those pictures above, people are basically walking in sewage....there be lots of bacteria and disease in them waters.  Best avoid them.

THD,

They do have a sewage system.  Not much, but they do have one.  The Vietnamese manholes are usually on the sidewalks. 

Nonetheless, when the water rises, little me stay home and out of its way.

Wild_1 wrote:

THD,

They do have a sewage system.  Not much, but they do have one.  The Vietnamese manholes are usually on the sidewalks. 

Nonetheless, when the water rises, little me stay home and out of its way.

Are you talking about a drainage sewer system  (for rain water)?  There's a difference between a sanitary sewer system and a drainage sewer system.  If it's a sanitary sewer system, then it needs a treatment plant; else the shi stuff just goes right into the river...and high tide, come right back to ya.  I've not seen any sewage treatment plants.  The industrial zones are suppose to have some but they just dump their toxic waters straight into the rivers.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Wild_1 wrote:

Hey gang,

I just saw a CNN report on that big storm, which is about to hit PI.  It looked pretty bad.  Vietnam is in its path...

We struggle with Vietnam in normal mode.  I highly doubt any of us will survive Vietnam in crisis mode.  So, especially those of you in the central area, keep an eye out for this thing and get yourself out of its way.

Yah, Super Typhoon Hiayan is coming. 

http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/14914/vie … n-10-years

Here's what it did to the Philippeans as of this morning.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013 … icted?lite

Super typhoon Haiyan slams Philippines; 'significant loss of life' predicted

I know we don't have tertiary WWT here, do we even have secondary?

Friend of mine has been getting sick here regularly, found out yesterday his GF was filling ice cube trays straight from the tap.  I think he'd better get his bloodwork done.

Heard Typhoon Haiyan is set to make landfall around Hue or Quang Ngai area in the early morning hours. Heard this weather storm may be the biggest ever with winds reaching near 380 km/h earlier. It just went through the Philippines and may strengthen again as it heads towards Vietnam. Please be safe.

http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/14944/da- … oon-haiyan

My fiance lives in Saigon, and it appears the storm will miss it, thank goodness.

mikeymyke wrote:

My fiance lives in Saigon, and it appears the storm will miss it, thank goodness.

Do they turn the power/electricity off when a storm starts down there?, they do it here, last time for nearly 16 hours, ( although 18 kms away in QN, they only lost power for short time ), I don't understand why they turn it off, the cable is insulated, ( fortunately for many VN's ).  They are always going around cutting down any tree's that may have even a remote chance of falling on a line, ( yah , more smoke ). And recently have installed concrete poles, ( this time more than 3 metres high ).

not much of an expert in power lines but I would assume strong wind, torrential water and downed power lines don't make touching water a pleasant zap.

khanh44 wrote:

not much of an expert in power lines but I would assume strong wind, torrential water and downed power lines don't make touching water a pleasant zap.

I thought that was what circuit breakers/fuses/sub stations tripping , etc, are all about, ( maybe only the intial few seconds would be a worry ), the power seems to go immediately here when a tree falls on the lines. ( occasionally you will get a truck going under a line and shorting out the power, but that is the job of the guy sitting on the top of the truck, to lift up the line so the truck can go under it ).

khanh44 wrote:

Heard Typhoon Haiyan is set to make landfall around Hue or Quang Ngai area ....

bluenz wrote:

....

The forecasts keeps changing for where this sucker will hit.  If it's in Quảng Ngãi, then will you please keep an eye out bluenz?  I'm free next week so if there's stuff I can bring up from here...I'll organize a convoy to go up there and help where we can.  Usually delivering boxes of instant noodles helps.  I'll hit up mikeymike to donate a box cuz he'll be so thankful.

mikeymyke wrote:

My fiance lives in Saigon, and it appears the storm will miss it, thank goodness.

And I'm sure alot of Expats in HCMC will be thankful as well (if this sucker misses HCMC and hits you in Quảng Ngãi instead).

We'd come to your house and you can distribute the goods from that point.  But let us know what your neighborhood needs.

I'm sure the government and other NGOs will aid wherever this will hit so we will stay out of their way.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

khanh44 wrote:

Heard Typhoon Haiyan is set to make landfall around Hue or Quang Ngai area ....

bluenz wrote:

....

The forecasts keeps changing for where this sucker will hit.  If it's in Quảng Ngãi, then will you please keep an eye out bluenz?  I'm free next week so if there's stuff I can bring up from here...I'll organize a convoy to go up there and help where we can.  Usually delivering boxes of instant noodles helps.  I'll hit up mikeymike to donate a box cuz he'll be so thankful.

mikeymyke wrote:

My fiance lives in Saigon, and it appears the storm will miss it, thank goodness.

And I'm sure alot of Expats in HCMC will be thankful as well (if this sucker misses HCMC and hits you in Quảng Ngãi instead).

We'd come to your house and you can distribute the goods from that point.  But let us know what your neighborhood needs.

I'm sure the government and other NGOs will aid wherever this will hit so we will stay out of their way.

Thanks for the offer, I'm sure you will enjoy the 900 km .
  trip. I just hope my house will still be here after.
Will keep you posted, but you might not hear from me until the power comes back on.  ( can't find a small generator here )

Stay safe bluenz and your family too. Just wished I was in Vietnam to help out anyway I can. We had the largest flood ever in Calgary 2 months ago and it was just incredible watching everyone pitch in to help out anyway they can.

khanh44 wrote:

Stay safe bluenz and your family too. Just wished I was in Vietnam to help out anyway I can. We had the largest flood ever in Calgary 2 months ago and it was just incredible watching everyone pitch in to help out anyway they can.

Thanks Khanh, it seems to be happening worldwide, India/Aus/China, everywhere, of course it has nothing to do with global warming, etc, etc.

khanh44 wrote:

Stay safe bluenz and your family too. Just wished I was in Vietnam to help out anyway I can. We had the largest flood ever in Calgary 2 months ago and it was just incredible watching everyone pitch in to help out anyway they can.

You don't need to be here to help; your other half is already here.  Let's see how this puppy pans out but my initial plan looks like hiring one of these small trucks

http://www.thailand4x4.com/images/lhd-i … -truck.JPG

Loading it with boxes of instant noodle and maybe some bags of rice (easy to find them down here in HCMC area), inviting one or two Expats and off we go.  Will take the mountain route (through Pleiku) since I'm sure QL1A will be flooded with relief vehicles already.

This is my brain brainstorming here...so nothing is set in stone.