On the night of Sunday, August 2, 2015, Typhoon Soudelor made landfall on the island of Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Though officially recorded as a "Category 5-equivalent super typhoon," speculation continues that Soudelor's winds far exceeded this category. Cars and even trucks were overturned, and it was later discovered that the wind speed recording equipment was destroyed during the storm; the highest speed recorded before the failure was 180 miles per hour. At the time, it was the most powerful storm to make landfall....ever...anywhere that year.
The eye of a storm is a roughly circular region of mostly calm weather, typically 30–65 km (20–40 miles) in diameter, located at the center of strong tropical cyclones. It is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather occurs. Soudelor's core--the eye and eyewall--was smaller than the island. That's why the devastation on Saipan was so intense, and why the neighboring island of Tinian, only two miles away, was virtually untouched by the storm.
Riza Ramos, her husband Ferdinand, and two children survived the devastation of that typhoon at point during which they were actually outside and unsheltered. Drinking Seawater is that story. However there is more...
