From swamped to submerged...

We got hit by a typhoon over the weekend. Typhoon Haitung hit on Sunday and brought sheets, buckets, kitchen sinks, god ...swimming pools worth of rain in every drop it seemed. School and work were cancelled on Monday throughout Taiwan. It was the first full out Typhoon day I have experienced. The winds were strong enough to blow down a large number of trees in Tainan and rip off some rooves even though the Taiwan hit further north around Hualian. The storm struggled with the central mountain range for a number of hours and strong as it was (classified a super-typhoon---category 5) it had to retreat and come back before getting over. It actually did a 360 degree loop before coming around and crossing the mountains!
Today we were still feeling the after effects and got completely dumped on. When I drove home from Tainan I ened up driving through some serious flooding. East of Tainan in Yong Kang a small river had broken its banks and a large area was flooded. The water was between waist and knee height. I didn't want to double back and take an alternate route so I braved the waters and drove the bike right through it. The tailpipe was underwater for most of the ride but my trusty Yahamha 150SR kept on chugging. After slinking my way through some back alleys that I thought were going to be a bit better off than the main road, but in fact were worse, I managed to get out of the taiwan/venetian-esque nightmare that had coalesced around the Kuan Shan University are and was back on a road where I could actually see the ashphalt. I wonder how the rat I saw swimming through the streets fared. It wasn't looking to promising for him when I passed.
I wish I had pictures!