Typhoon Glenda

Earlier in my blog I mentioned that there may be a "bit of turbulence" with the weather in July/August. We know it is going to be wet a lot of the time if Wikipedia is remotely accurate; and as a couple of fellow IBM'er's and Filipinos put it...."you're hitting typhoon season too"!

Well another typhoon just hit with the force of a hurricane, because essentially a typhoon IS a hurricane. We just had a hurricane pass through the East Coast of Canada (Arthur) and hit many areas of Atlantic Canada pretty hard so I am familiar with what a hurricane can do. Arthur was not too bad but 11 years ago the worst one hit Nova Scotia (Juan) and it is always in the back of people's minds  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Juan

A cyclone is any mass of air that spirals around a low pressure center. It is an organized collection of thunderstorms embedded in a swirling mass of air. In general, both typhoons and hurricanes are tropical cyclones but differ in their locations. The difference between hurricane and typhoon is that tropical cyclones in the west Pacific are called Typhoons and those in the Atlantic and east Pacific Ocean are called Hurricanes.

My teammate Brian first noticed this and sent word(I told you he was on top of things). Anyway just got notice yesterday from the IBM Emergency Communications Team that Tropical Storm Rammasun has strengthened into a Typhoon now (Typhoon Glenda).  The conditions have brought strong winds, heavy rains and storm surges in some coastal area. Whilst initial forecasts reported conditions were not strong, they intensified over the weekend and by Monday 14th July it was raised to Tropical Storm category. Now categorized as Typhoon Glenda, the storm is moving west.

Dear Global IBMers,

As reported by ANC, Typhoon ''Glenda'' maintained its strength as it barreled towards the Bicol region. PAGASA said as of 4 a.m.Glenda was spotted 270 kilometers east of Legazpi City, Albay. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph.

Metro Manila and Sta. Rosa are now on signal no. 2 and Naga, on signal no. 3. We request that you keep your respective executive hosts of your travel information and accommodation details in the Philippines.  Please also share your complete contact information, so they may reach you as and when needed.

I sincerely hope everyone in The Philippines is OK and that damage to people and property is limited. One of our teammates, Luciana from Brazil is already there at Boracay Beach. This is the number # 1 beach in The Philippines and supposed to be amazing.  I suspect it is not the best time to be there :-(   and hope she is safe!  

Keeping a close eye on the updates and still planning on leaving tomorrow night at 22:00 unless I hear otherwise!  An update from our NGO Partners (Australian Business Ventures) is that disruptions could be possible but we still expect to be on track.

On to my favorite thing....packing! Ughhh


#ibmcsc philippines