A morning storm by GJ

Woke up around 4:00 A.M. because of quick, bright flashes of light that came through the closed blinds of our bedroom. Due to my hearing loss, I couldn't hear any thunder at the time, so I kept wondering what the flashes were about. Later, I did hear a burst of thunder. (It must have been quite loud.) The storm lasted at least two hours that I knew of. As I thought about the weather over breakfast (a micro-omelet that wasn't all that great) I recalled the "great typhoon" of 1945, when our tiny ship (55 men) went to sea to "outrun it," and got out-foxed by it. (The storm, called typhoons in Pacific, hurricanes in Atlantic...same thing, basically) was expected to turn east, but decided to turn west. We were headed west, of course. Estimates placed the winds at 100+ mph, and waves at 100 feet. (I do recall that we spotted a very large, US cargo ship, with masts maybe 75 feet high over water level, and as we passed each other, a wave got between us and we could not see its masts!) We were completely at the mercy of the storm, and simply turned our stern (rear) toward it and "rode it out." Back in port at Okinawa, several ships our size sank and some were blown ashore, which was as safe as anything else. It was really the only time, up until then, that we were so painfully aware of our smallness. A number of sailors lost their lives in that storm. Tragically, it was within days of the armistice.