School has been cancelled for 6 days whilst we brace for another typhoon (well two really). The first one crossed the land in the province south of us in the wee hours this morning, we lost power for about 12 hours and a few signs and things have been blown down. The wind really did not affect us, our problem is the rain. Qingtian is a valley town with a river through the centre of it. This is now the highest we have ever seen it and as the rain continues there is some fear it will burst its banks.

All the kids were sent home and I confess I fear for some of them as the school is a relatively safe place and some of the kids live in low lying areas. Today we went into town to get some more supplies and I was horrified by some of the things I saw. Some farmers have lost their crops (they are well and truly underwater). Chinese people generally speaking can't swim and are scared of calm water. A man today waded chest height into his corn crop to salvage what he could. He was terrified.

Here are some pics of the normal water level compared to now.