Don’t know why, but recently I have been wandering down
Memory Lane. Maybe it’s the holiday
season that gets me reminiscing or the winter time blues, or ….who knows what,
but I started thinking about pieces of my ancient history.
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| Jerry on the Palumin Tasi |
In May, 1976 I had been living on Guam for about 9
months. No, I wasn’t in the military nor
the Peace Corps. I had been living in
Alaska the prior two years when Jerry, a former boyfriend from my early
Cincinnati years, came to Fairbanks for a visit. He had moved there to work at the NASA
Tracking Station as a Field Engineer just prior to my move to Alaska.
While visiting in Fairbanks Jerry urged me to join him on
Guam. I had just finished my second
winter in Alaska, and frankly I was ready for a new location. Twenty hours of darkness for 4 months of the
year was tough to take, so I was ready for a change.
Life was pretty good on Guam. Jerry was well employed and I didn’t have any
problems finding a job. He owned a 32’
sloop named the Palumin Tasi and we had a nice group of friends, mostly
ex-Peace Corps workers to hang out with.
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| Sue and Jerry |
The week of May 23 we were aware that there was a storm
brewing close to us. Jerry was paying
more attention than I. But around May 20
we were at the Marina where the Plaumin Tasi was moored talking to owner. I don’t remember his name now, but I do
remember that he was a retired Merchant Marine seaman and knew the ocean
well. The news kept reporting that the
storm would pass our island 50 miles to the south. That evening as we talked our Marina owner
told us the newsmen didn’t know a damn thing. “Why” Jerry asked.
And he replied, “See those trees?
The direction of the wind hasn’t shifted in 8 hours.” Jerry and I looked at him with questions in
our eyes. He knew we were pretty green
when it came to the ocean.
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| First Mate and Captain |
“That means the storm is coming straight at us. If it was
passing us to the south, the direction of the wind would have been shifting as
it moved along.” Jerry blanched white. There wasn’t much we could do for the Palumin Tasi. Jerry understood the quadrants of the storm
and knew the boat had to be tied up in one direction during the first half of
the storm, and then reversed, if he had the opportunity, for the second. We weren’t sure where the eye of the storm
would land, but the radio urged everyone to stay sheltered as it still would
not be safe to be out and about.
We did what we could to secure our house and then headed to
Merizo to be near the boat. The house
was rented. The boat was Jerry’s
baby.
Friends had a house in Merizo where we headed just prior to
the storm hitting. It was early in the
day when the wind started to pick up and the rain started pouring. I remember 4-6 of us in the house, which luckily was cement block with a solid roof. However, it was situated lower than the road
bed, which presented a problem.
The driveway to the house was lined up directly with the
front door. As the rain began coming
down in buckets, the water ran straight down the driveway and into the front
door. At first it was seeping under the
door, then it was pouring. We moved
furniture around trying to save it from the water. At one point we opened the door and tried to
sweep the water back out…but that didn’t work.
Then, someone noticed that the back door of the house was perfectly
lined up with the front door and they
had the brilliant idea to just let the water run straight through the
house…which is what we did.
All of us had brooms or mops and with towels we made a
little channel where the water ran through the house and out the back
door. Worked like a charm.
After several hours we could tell the storm was letting
up. The eye had arrived. We had no idea where in the eye we were. Were we lined up dead center or off to an
edge? That tiny bit of information would
determine how much time we had to turn the boat around. Jerry took off and came back reporting that
the boat was fine so far. He also
reported that a group of boat owners/captains were holed up in the Marina and
planned to stay there during the second half of the storm. Jerry announced he was joining them and what
did I want to do?
My options were to head to a shelter in the mountains of the
island, which is where all the smart people were. That could mean it would be days before I
would see Jerry again. Or, I could join
everyone in the Marina, where all the incredibly stupid people were. Mind you, these were all people I knew, had
partied with, cared about. But they were
stupid!!!
The problem was multi-faceted.
First, the Marina was a cement block building, at the end of
a pier that extended about 30 yards out into the water. Not the safest place to be during a
typhoon.
Second, the second half of this storm would be the
destructive half. We were
in that quadrant that would see the meanest seas and the highest wind. When I pointed out to Jerry that there was a
good chance the building could disintegrate, he said we would all lock arms,
and run for a Telephone Utility Building across the road from the Marina. Never mind that there would be tin roofs,
coconuts and other assorted goodies flying through the air and that the
building was locked up tight. No way we would
get in there.
On top of that, the winds were now pushing the water into
our little harbor instead of sucking it out as had happened during the first
half. That meant the water would be
rising significantly during this half of the storm. That Marina could easily end up under water
in short order. No, I did not want to go to the mountains, but I did not
want to be in that Marina either. I was
not a happy camper, but the Marina it was going to be.
By this time we were fully engulfed in the eye of the
storm. It was surreal. The sun was out, birds were flying
around. It looked like a normal day
out. No rain. No wind.
Jerry had plenty of time to turn the boat around and secure her as
tightly as possible. All the other boats
were there too. A 40’ trimaran, 2 small glass bottom tour
boats, and a fairly large Chris Craft deep sea fishing boat were weathering out Typhoon Pamela.
By 4 PM our fellow boat owners/captains were partying
hard. They stockpiled the Marina with
food, alcohol and weed. Some were barely
conscious. If things turned bad, someone
was not going to make it, I had no doubt.
I for one steered clear of anything that would foggy up my senses; I
didn’t know what I would do if that building started to go, but I was going to
give myself a fighting chance. And then we saw the inside wall of the eye approaching
us. Man….did I want out of there.
There are people in this world who never truly experience
nature, who never know the joy, sheer beauty and terror of our natural
environment. I can’t say that I am an adrenaline junkie, but I have seen my fair share of what is the beauty of nature. This was sheer terror.
That wall crawled toward us.
It was dark and grey and went up as far as we could tilt back our
heads. The birds were trapped, there was
no escape for them until the storm died out or they ran out of steam. As it got closer and closer the sound was eerie,
scary, frightening…all the stuff they include in horror movies. Finally we all went inside. Within minutes the water rose to mid-calf and
the waves were pounding over the top of the building. You could watch the ocean-facing wall shiver
with each crash of a wave. And then it
was night. We had no electricity …all we
had was the sound!!
Jerry and I crawled up on top of a desk and tried to sleep
and stay dry. Both were impossible. The hours crawled by. It was the longest night in history. As the skies began to lighten we could also
tell the storm was passing. The water
was not as high inside the building and the waves were not as ferocious on the
outside. The marina was built so that
there was a stairway on the outside that led to the roof. Two of our friends went to the roof as soon
as it was light. Jerry and I heard them
say, from the roof, ‘Does Jerry know yet?’
We knew immediately what that meant and I felt Jerry flinch. The Palumin Tasi was down.
Only her mast was above water, but she was still at her
berth. Two brothers owned the trimaran and
both had lived their entire lives on the sea.
They were excellent swimmers and divers.
One free dove around the hull and inside our boat. Robin reported that the only damage he could
see was a wench was pulled from the deck, otherwise it appeared she had
swamped. Immediately those three minds
got to working on a solution to bring her back up. From somewhere, I have no idea where, they
rounded up 8-55 gallon drums, tied them to the hull of the Palumin Tasi and
filled each with air from diving tanks.
When the 8th drum was filled, the gunnels of Palumin Tasi
popped above the water line and we started bailing. We spent the remainder of the day bailing
like crazy. Took us several hours, but
finally she was safe and secure above the water line and safely tied off once
more. God it had been a terrifying 24
hours.
So then we headed home.
That was a trick. It was about an
8 mile drive from Merizo to Inarajan and the road ran along the coast
line. There was terrific damage to the
road and debris everywhere, but finally we made it. Our rental home was intact, but there was
standing water inside throughout the house.
It had terrazzo floors which made for easy sweeping. I had recently adopted a tiny kitten and she
was nowhere to be found when we had left for Merizo 24 hours earlier. Now she was sitting on a bureau crying her
eyes out. She would not stop.
Since the storm had
passed it was back to typical Guam weather, low 90’s, bright sun, blue
skies. Everything in the house was wet so
we had nowhere to sleep that night.
Friends who lived a few driveways down the road were home. As we approached their house we could see
that a wall had collapsed, but, they had dry places to sleep. I was carrying the kitten and she was still
crying. As our friend approached us on
her driveway I started crying too. Me
and kitten bawling our eyes out, what a sight we must have been.
Three days later the airport was open and I was on one of
the first flights headed home. I told
Jerry I loved him tons, but I wanted to go home, which in this case was
Cincinnati. From the Chicago airport I
called Mom and Dad in St. Pete and let them know where I was and that I was ok. They knew about the typhoon and assumed I was
ok since the news had reported only 1 death, caused by a heart attack.
It was a short stay in Guam, only 10 months total, but what
a ride….3 typhoons (only 1 direct hit), one major earthquake and the Palumin
Tasi. Would do it all again (without
Pamela) in a heartbeat.
