Yesterday morning, Typhoon “Vicente” officially struck our town, Xinxing. I was already woken up by the sound of the wind at 3:00 AM. I got up around 7:00 AM, just when the typhoon was at its peak, blowing fiercely with a sound like a truck engine starting...
Power was out all day yesterday. In the morning, the landline was also cut (this is common in rural areas; power outages are widespread because the wind knocks down utility poles, but the phone line issue was specific to my house). At noon, the landline suddenly reconnected on its own, which was frustrating. By the afternoon, the wind and rain had mostly stopped. My mother and I went out to clean up the “mess.” Many things had been blown over, especially the two small sheds in front of my house, which were in a terrible state. Some potted plants, vegetables, and trees in front of the door had also fallen. The three of us spent time climbing up and down to slowly repair and tidy up.
There was still no power in the evening. That was fine; it had been a long time since I had a candlelit dinner. Around 9:00 PM, the power returned, but there was another malfunction—while the power in other houses was normal, the light bulbs in my house were very dim and the fluorescent lights wouldn’t start. It was clearly a low voltage issue. I had no choice but to try and fix it myself. After ruling out many causes, I even tried drawing power from a neighbor’s house, but our lights were still dim (the voltage problem remained). This meant only one thing: there was no fault in the external circuit; the problem was within my house’s internal wiring. I suspected a device was connected in series somewhere, drawing away the voltage. However, since the wires are embedded in the walls and it was too dark to work, I couldn’t repair it and just went to sleep.
When I woke up the next day, the low voltage problem was gone, and the fluorescent lights could start, so I didn’t think about repairing it further. Around 8:00 AM, I planned to go online but found the old problem had returned—the landline was completely unresponsive, and I couldn’t access the internet. I thought about calling China Telecom to fix it, but after yesterday’s storm, everyone was queuing for repairs. Out of necessity, I decided to fix it myself in the afternoon. I gathered a ladder, pliers, telephone wire, and gloves (landline voltage is usually harmless, but I’ve found my body resistance is lower than average, so gloves are better). Checking from the outside in, I found a section of the telephone wire was severely corroded. I cut it and replaced it with a new one. After connecting it, the phone worked. However, when I connected it back to the original internal house wiring, it failed again, indicating the problem was still inside. After further troubleshooting, I concluded that by unplugging a phone line in one of the rooms, the circuit returned to normal. I suspect there was a short circuit somewhere there, which reminded me of yesterday’s low voltage issue... but I didn’t have time to think too much. I was too tired, so I’ll just make do for now and check again tomorrow.
“Vicente” turned me into a full-time repairman once again. ^_^
Appendix: The Origin of the Typhoon Name “Vicente”
“Vicente” is originally a common female name in the United States.
Since multiple typhoons can occur simultaneously in the ocean, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) set up by the US military on Guam (now moved to Hawaii) used to name typhoons during WWII. Initially, all names were female, but male names were added in 1979. Since 2000, the naming of typhoons has been handled by the Typhoon Committee of the International Meteorological Organization. Currently, names for typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and the South China Sea are provided by the 14 members of the Typhoon Committee (including China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc.), with each providing 10 names, divided into 5 lists.
The actual naming task is assigned to the Japan Meteorological Agency (Tokyo Regional Specialized Meteorological Center). Whenever the JMA determines a tropical cyclone in the Northwest Pacific or South China Sea has reached tropical storm intensity, it assigns a name from the list and a four-digit number. The first two digits represent the year, and the last two represent the order of formation. For example, 0312 refers to the 12th tropical storm of 2003 (called a severe tropical storm or typhoon when it reaches those intensities), named KROVANH; 0313 is the 13th tropical storm of 2003, named DUJUAN. The Chinese names for typhoons are determined through consultation between the China Meteorological Administration and the meteorological departments of Hong Kong and Macau.