FEMA's Dream

Typhoon Saomai, said to be the strongest storm to hit the China coast in 40 years, is just south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province but it's still a clear sky in the city. Surprisingly, the storm is not expected to affect Shanghai at all. CNN Weather says it should be raining (it's not) and other weather services say it is clear and 93 F (which it is). The full moon is crisp and bright in a clear night sky - something I thought I wouldn't be seeing in Shanghai. From January to June Shanghai's sky was grey and polluted nearly every day.

One odd thing about typhoons and China is the relative lack of news coverage about the storm damage. Stories about the storms are very limited when compared with US news coverage. Unlike the US, the Chinese Anderson Coopers don't rush down to the beach in their rain slickers and shout into the microphone as 70 mph winds slap them around. You certainly won't see the media here criticizing the government for its fumbled responses to storms. There could be 10,000 people stranded in a soccer stadium in Wenzhou but no one outside the stadium will know about it.

The government here is so worried about social unrest that they recently issued a decree that prohibits the media from talking about developing news until the government tells them it's ok. That should make the TV news here even more exciting.