One of our frequent posters on AH&N, Phileas Fogg, lives on an island southeast of Leyte. I sent him a PM the day after the typhoon struck to see if he was OK and much to my surprise, got an almost immediate response. He and his resort had survived, but one of the words he used to describe the experience was "frightening".
Sorry for the thread drift but indeed I did describe it as "frightening" ...
So many have perished or suffered far worse however our electricity "browned out" before midnight and there was I in the horizontal rain repeatedly trying to 'rip cord' start the generator before I finally got it going and I spent much of the night up, to the effect, "If this ship is going down then I'm going to be there at the helm".
Alas all we suffered were damages to our fences, indeed we took in two additional French guests at the 11th hour (they were frightened where they were staying) and one of these guys actually slept through the super typhoon so well constructed are our accommodations of my design.
But, hey, Leyte is the place that has been f*cked, this super typhoon just gave me/us one hell of a lovebite as it went past, please concentrate on Leyte, we're already back up and running again.
God bless