I know, natural disasters doesn’t sound like the most appealing title. But this story needs to be told.
I already knew September is a pretty rough month to travel anywhere close to the Pacific. But honestly, it looks like my plan was set up by some very weird travel agency with an odd sense of humour…
Asia
The day before my departure, deadly storm Jebi hit Japan pretty badly, leaving the airport of Osaka closed for quite a long time.
I only saw the damage to some areas in Kyoto when I visited, but it was pretty bad.
Then, while in Seoul, I saw the news that super-typhoon Mangkhut was on its devastating way to Taipei. That, on the exact same weekend I was supposed to be there. Forcing me to cancel my departure to Taiwan only 2 days before.
Mangkhut then suddenly changed path at the last minute and moved South to ravage the Philippines and Hong-Kong.
Pacific
At the same time, tropical storm Olivia made landfall in Hawaii. And that was shortly after the eruption of Kilauea. In fact, Hawaii received quite a few blows in these past weeks, to the point that parts of it are now even disappearing!
Climate change is real
Luckily, in the end none of this affected me directly but it made me realise how bad is the situation for the population living in these areas.
Living in Europe, you see only some news every now and then but you don’t really sense the scale of the problem. But we do have our own disasters: flooding being probably the main one throughout the continent.
And it’s getting worse year after year. Climate change is making the hurricane/typhoon season ever so unpredictable now. As well as causing all sorts of disasters.
I can only hope that myself and the other tourists visiting these countries in September made at least some positive impact on the respective economies.
Oh, and one more thing…
And it wasn’t enough. I came close to natural disasters even after I left the Pacific. While visiting Toronto, the nearby region of Quebec was hit by several tornadoes in a very short time.
🙁
I know what you’re thinking. I should lock myself in and avoid visiting any country for the time being… But I promise it’s not me! I met someone at the airport in Tokyo that told me the typhoons were following him, so… Wanna hang out together? 😉
