(Editor's note: Lanna Beall is Tom Beall's wife. Tom is a frequent contributor to Clever Magazine. The two of them have traveled extensively and have lived in many locations throughout the Pacific Rim, making a home wherever Tom's work takes them. I pleaded with Lanna to let me publish her journal entries relating t the typhoon on Guam. She agreed.  

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Agana, Guam, August, 1992

We were told a tropical storm would be here Wednesday morning so on Tuesday I replenished our fifteen gallons of bottled water, bought groceries including only one can of Spam as you can't go through a typhoon on Guam without your Spam. Anyway I was ready with laundry all done and everything.

Well, I waited and waited and waited!  Omar showed up fashionably late...no, rudely late!  Friday, starting around 10:00 am, I was watching the barometer falling and the wind and rain raising.  Had a couple of calls from friends asking how I was doing as Tom was in Taipei.  

At first it was fun standing on the lanai watching the waves that were about 20 feet high, crashing into the rock bluff below me and being able to lean into the wind and stay upright.  But then the rain started and the wind was getting stronger.  I had a hard time opening the sliding glass door because of the pressure on it.  Not long after getting the door closed, the windows were really rattling and I could hear windows cracking and popping elsewhere in the building.  I was so afraid some would come crashing through our windows and had been warned against standing near them.  It was all I could do to walk away because it reminded me of Dorothy and Toto in the tornado as the house rises and the witch rides by the window.  

I did lie down behind the sofa that separates the living room from the dining room and read and prayed each time the windows rattled so hard while the walls were shaking.  They say the winds reached 155 mph but that's when the Navy's weather station blew down!  A Continental Airlines pilot said gusts were up to 190 mph!  

During the first half, before the eye (which is spectacular and calm), we lost power and water.  I had filled two bathtubs with water.  I was able to listen to the radio to hear some of the things going on.  Some examples are:  cars flipping onto other cars, car windows blowing out and condo windows blowing in, (we lost a lanai window), huge 4000 pound cement power poles snapping off, Navy ships in for repair (White Plains and Niagara Falls) broke moorage and went aground and wooden houses disappearing!  We had a new BBQ pavilion roof ripped off. All of this was before the half-time! 

We live in a cement condo but inside walls are regular. They were shaking!  But the windows started shaking so hard I moved into the kitchen on the floor where there is no window except the slot where the bar goes into the dining room.  

After the eye passed it was night, so all I could hear was the wind pushing on the windows.  Rattling and whistling made my nerves truly on edge.  There was 16" of rain!  I didn't cry until I saw Tom walk into the living room.  My many prayers were answered.  I came through fine.  We got our phone back Tuesday morning, water back around Tuesday 3PM and still are waiting for electricity.  Our fridge and dinning room light are on generator so we can't complain.  If they keep the water on for 24 hours we will have a homeless family of three stay with us till they get on their feet.  So will be calling Red Cross.  All in all, I survived and told Tom to plan on going through the next one as this is early typhoon season.

Ten Days Later:  

It's been ten days since the typhoon.  We got our water back seven days after the storm and still no power!  The power company says it could be another four weeks!  Cold showers are better than none in this hot, humid time.  Sometimes even four showers a day are in order for me.  One of the local people that work for MCI brought in a washing machine to the MCI offices right after the storm.  Talk about a neat thing to do!  Tom goes in early, runs a load of laundry and comes home for lunch so that we can string wet clothes all over the place.  I'm so grateful for those little things.....it's not a little thing anymore!

1999: some stray thoughts about Guam:

After re-reading the story of the typhoon I began to think about our experiences in that U.S. Territory. On Aug. 8, 1993 we survived a sixty second earthquake, the first in my life. It wasn't too devastating
materially, since most of the buildings were built from steel reinforced
cement block, but food flew off the refrigerator shelves, canned goods and
dishes leapt out of cupboards and the TV flipped onto it's face on the
floor. But just the idea of not being able to hide or protect myself from
the after shocks, to this day seven years later, knots my stomach and 
brings tears to my eyes. If I'm sitting in a chair when a heavy truck goes by that shakes the ground my "Richter butt" goes off and tenses me up reminding me of the fear again.

But living in Guam for three years brings back few good memories. I have to
say this about the society, and the Chamorro culture too. But in Guam we
really felt the minority status, and it made living there very uncomfortable.
We were invited to a birthday party for an associates little boy, for example, so we were encouraged that we might find some friendly locals, but after we arrived and shared our gift, then ate a beautiful lunch picnic style, we left soon after that because the only people that talked to us was the greeting from the hostess upon arrival! There are many things I could go into about living on Guam but I'll just say it was an excellent place to use as the center of a circle to explore the other wonderful countries in the Pacific Rim.

We have lived in New Zealand where people are friendly, and we got involved with several lovely families. Their hearts and ours were open. In fact my husband and I took care of a small sheep ranch for friends while they went on vacation for two weeks. 

In Japan, where we lived during our next adventure, and did not speak the language, we would ride our bikes and explore Tokyo neighborhoods. Once we came upon a Bonn celebration where they motioned us to join a dance and eat with them. All of this was done with smiles and gestures. We are open to learning about cultures and have experienced some wonderful times. Even in France people were friendly. 

Now we live in the beautiful state of Colorado. Oregon is my state of birth,
and we've lived there most of our lives, off and on and love it. Now the
Colorado Rockies are my home, and I truly love it except I miss the beautiful soil to plant flowers and vegetables that is so abundant in Oregon. But I have deer, fox, bear and even turkeys to watch out any window. So Oregon I will hold dear to my heart and visit when I can. 

All is well.

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