CONTRIBUTED BY MARIE LEWIS

Here’s a little somethin’ somethin’ to email to your parents/friends who wanted to know what Bolaven was like. And a good reminder to all of us of the experience. Maybe once in a lifetime!

9 COMMENTS

  2. Great little video! You guys trolling her have got to be kidding me! What do you want? Death and destruction every where you look? Or does it just make you feel good to try and put other people down, however passive you may be. Or maybe you just like to be the one upper and say “Oh that typhoon wasn’t nothing I’ve been through yadayadayada”! Honestly a very good look into Bolaven, bottom line. She wasn’t trying to start a major panic back home, just giving them a little taste of her first typhoon. You guys are silly for trying to make her feel bad, and I’m silly for replying to you!

  3. Thank you Marie for the documentation on Typhoon Bolaven that you recently experienced in Okinawa. This was a well documented and factual video, there was no opinion in this video so I do not agree that it was exaggerated by any means. I live in the States and have no idea what it is to experience a typhoon so I appreciate the information. I have seen in the news over the years coverage of typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. but have never experienced a “storm” of that level. I was, however, a witness to horrible flooding that devastated my hometown last year…..we are still recovering. I personally assisted evacuating people out of their homes and providing medical care. Our area was, and still is, in no way prepared for that amount of rain again. So I cannot imagine what the rain looks like in a Typhoon, the damage CAN be tremendous. Fortunately, Typhoon Bolaven was NOT was bad as they predicted, but it was still a Typhoon. I am so grateful that no one was seriously injured, including my family that lives there. We should never be so arrogant to brush off a Typhoon as just a little “wind and rain”, no matter how small it turned out to be in the end because for one, yes, it could have been worse, so be grateful that it was not, and two, you may not have been affected by it directly but I guarantee many others were and you should have respect for those people. Especially for roadway crews and emergency responders working throughout the storm to ensure the safety of everyone, including you. This video did not instill “fear” to the point that I was having a meltdown worrying, but it does create a level of awareness, and rightly so, that Typhoons can be very dangerous. I do not take my family for granted and can only pray that the next one that hits Okinawa is not any worse than Bolaven was. Thank you Marie for this video, I think you did a great job!

  4. I appreciate the honesty of those posting here, but as the person who put the video together, I would like to say that my intent certainly was not to incite fear in people. I too have family back in the states who worry very much for my safety. I used actual images of the typhoon and actual quotes from news reports ahead of the typhoon. This was my experience – heed the warnings because we don’t know what will happen. I showed what I saw for myself after the storm had passed. I did not go out to “hang out in a bar.” I quoted the man in the video as a means to show that the typhoon did not turn out to be very destructive here – for which I am extremely grateful. Before I moved here I wondered often what a typhoon actually looked like. This was my attempt to show one to others who could not see it for themselves.

  5. Tell that to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Issac victims. That’s all a hurricane is, wind and rain. The only difference is, Okinawa is used to it and they build accordingly. Even Family Marts and MOS Burger closed off base. When the convenience stores in Okinawa close because of a typhoon, you know its serious. I agree, you shouldn’t scare the crap out of people, but you shouldn’t take it lightly either.

    That same typhoon killed 4 people in South Korea and 48 people in North Korea. Just a little wind and rain…

  6. Good idea. Blow it out of proportion and incite fear in our families that already worry about us being half a world away. All of us that were here know the rain was much worse after the storm passed. “Look, it’s so dangerous that we went out on the roads to go hang out in a bar!”. Lol. This is silly.

    • I couldn’t agree more. Kind of silly to blow the typhoon up to something that wasn’t all that bad. Wind and rain… That’s an average typhoon. Let’s not send dramatic videos home with unrealistic commentaries to freak everyone out…

    • Just because there was not a lot of damage or injuries, does not mean this wasn’t a serious storm. The worst part of the storm was overnight while you may have been sleeping. I’m originally from Louisiana and have been through many of hurricanes. This was one of the strongest storms I’ve ever been through, the only difference is that Okinawa is made to handle these typhoons and did not sustain much damage.
      Thanks Marie for sharing your story!