Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1922-11-15
Philippine Typhoon
No April Shower,
Mrs. Herold Says
Bangued, Abea, P. l.,
Sept. 20, 1922.


Dear Mama and Dad
We have recently returned from
trip so thrilling that | never want TO
take another like it. Ever since we
have been here the superintendent at
the agriculture school at Lagangllaug
has wanted us to come to Visit the
school, AS it is Is mile trip we had
to wait for two consecutive free days,
so last Saturday bright and early we
left on horseback for the place. Tne
trip there over the mountains is
beauty, and as our horses were feel
ing fine we made it in three hours
crossing the Abba river. Crossing
rivers here always takes more or less
time; as there are no bridges we are
Obliged to wait until the Filipino rart-
man poles or rows us across, which
| is a slow process. It's interesting to
watch them handle their RATS. me
one we crossed on was about AZ feet
wide and about 20 feet long. These
RATS are just bamboo poles about
| inches in diameter tied together with
rattan The air tight joints or the
| bamboo make them Observation-Disclosures
| less they get broken. The river is
ordinarily 200 feet wide and swift; SO
we had to walk up stream IN order TO
land at the road opposite us. inc
horses rode on the raft with us. Ell
mer's hesitated great deal in getting
on, but was as still as mouse Whlle
| crossing. Just as we landed a heaVy
| rain overlook us and soaked us be-
/ fore we rode the three addltlonal
] miles to the school. We imagined we
were having our daily shower, but the
| rain did not stop, it continued all al
ternoon and with it came a sHgnt
wind, which suggested typhoon to me-
| but the barometer registered "moder-
ate; so we Gained ourselves. Inc
| rain and wind increased. Whlcn
alarmed us in spite of the barometer.
! Of coures there is no telegraph or
| telephone at Lagangilaug; so we had
no way of knowing what was IN store
| Off u.s. We eased ourselves with the
| thought that we were noe informed OF
! typhoon before leaving Bangued, as
messages are telegraphed "a hours
ahead of storms. and furthermore, the
postmaster had loaned us his morse,
! and he is the one who operates the
| telegraph office. By dark we were no
! longer doubtful-we were having
regular typhoon. The wind was blow
| ing a terrific gale from the south ana
| the rain was coming IN torrents You
can imagine how we felt up there on
| the other side of that bridgeless river,
when typhoons last, sometimes sever
al days.
It's needless to say that we had no
sleep, as the storm reached It's
height from 1 to 6 in the morning.
The bamboo house fairly swayed in
| the "breezes". l was afraid that an
! immense mango tree beside the mouse
would blow over on it. All that was
between us and the flooded sky was
! straw roof, but it was good one, as
! it leaked very little, and deadened the
| doWnpour OF the rain. Daylight ala
| not come until about 1880, the storm
! still ragged but MOI so much as during
the night The boys of the school be-
! gan to bring in reports OF the storm
one teachers cottage was blown IN;
| one students house was blown nat
with four boys in it (they all escaped
without injury; several houses in
| town were blown fiat, and many dam
aged The mango trees about three
| feet in diameter were blown down,
about 100 papaia trees, many banana
trees, etc. were also destroyed. But
all this was insignificant to us when
| compared with the thought OF the
river which had increased to over
mile in width. You can imagine the
size of any stream after rainfall OF
twenty-five inches in "a hours. By
Sunday evening the wind had ceased,
and the rain clouds were broken
Everyone predicted that no one would
be able to cross the river for three
DAYS. We hated the thought of miss
ing so much school.
Monday morning dawned bright, so
we lived in hopes of no more rain
Both of us taught classes in English
phonics at the school that morning.
There had been no American teachers
with the exception of inspectors for
many years; so our services were
much appreciated. BY noon clouds
began to appear; so we were afraid
of the river rising again instead OF
continuing to go down. BY that time
it had gone down many feet, it being
only about one-half mile wide. But
| the raftman refused to take anyone
! across, and in fact no one wanted to
go but us and six constabulary SOL
diers. At one o'clock Elmer went to
take a good look at the river and
while there the soldiers persuaded
the raftman to take them across. They
crossed in safety; so Elmer came
back to tell me. We then dreaded to
! cross too.
When | saw the size of the river and
the waves and the approaching rain
many thoughts went through my head
to cross or not to cross was the
question. The raftman fatty refused
to take the horses on the raft and the
water was so swift they could not
swim: so even if we did cross we
would have to walk the remaining IL
miles. The river was then as low as
! it would get for the next several days ::
so we took a chance and dreaded to
cross. Don't worry about this, as
we shall never take such a chance
again.
| The forks of the river came togeth-
err just above Lagangilaug, the one on
the side of the town being full OF
rapids, but the water was too high for
any rocks to be sticking out. The
plan of the raftman was this: to pull
us up the stream about 1 " miles then
shoot the rapids and get enough speed
| NJ fbo orr