Writers on the Storm
[updated at bottom with schedule changes]
I woke this morning fully expecting to be floating down the Huangpu River, or, if the current was just right, perhaps the magnificent Yangtze, which by the way I hear is lovely this time of year. I would be another faceless victim of that dastardly Typhoon Wipha, which was sure to flood Shanghai's immaculate subway system, turn People's Park and Yu Garden into sink holes and convert the seven-story Longhua pagoda into a sea buoy.
Lo and behold, barely a drop of rain had fallen. What a disappointment. The humidity was 99.9 percent and the winds were kicking up as the afternoon arrived, but still no monster storm. Oh Wipha, where art thou? We're told to expect something exciting this evening. Ooh......
Perhaps I should not make light of this storm, for it did do plenty of damage south of here. But for our selfish Shanghai purposes, here's the latest from Bloomberg News:
The eye is expected to pass within 100 kilometers of downtown Shanghai, Zhang Zhenyu, the head of Shanghai's natural disaster department, said by telephone today. "The storm won't have as big an impact as was earlier thought,'' he said. Shanghai evacuated 200,000 people and closed schools and kindergartens in the city ahead of the storm. Shanghai's two airports are operating today, after some flights were delayed or canceled late yesterday, Zhang said. The airports will assess weather conditions as the storm approaches, he said. China Eastern Airlines Corp. and Shanghai Airlines Co., the city's two biggest carriers, canceled 30 flights, according to the two companies. Construction of the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, China's tallest skyscraper, was halted yesterday, according to a statement on the Shanghai government's Web site.
Fearful of the impending mayhem and the impact on travel, the U.S. women's team remained at their downtown hotel and used the pool for exercise and conditioning. They are tenatively set to fly to Tianjin, site of Saturday's quarterfinal against England, on Thursday morning.
Just a reminder that I will take your soccer questions during a live online chat on washingtonpost.com Wednesday at 11 a.m. Eastern time (very late Wednesday my time). Click here to submit a question or to read the transcript later.
Schedule changes!
The Australia-Canada and China-New Zealand games scheduled for today have been moved to Thursday to ensure that all group finales are played simultaneously. FIFA said it was not able to make that decision until today because of weather uncertainties.
So no games today, four games tomorrow:
Canada-Australia and Norway-Ghana at 5 a.m. Eastern
Brazil-Denmark and China-New Zealand at 8 a.m. Eastern
Got it?
By Steve Goff |
September 19, 2007; 4:00 AM ET
Women
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Posted by: sitruc | September 19, 2007 5:11 AM
Surprised and pleased to see photo of US v. Nigeria on front page above the fold! Kudos to Post and Goff for the coverage.
Posted by: mlh | September 19, 2007 5:35 AM
Thanks for the schedule updates. It took me a while to figure out what was going on especially after hearing Canada was protesting playing when the China match had been postponed. Gotta love that FIFA website that is behind everything.
Posted by: sitruc | September 19, 2007 5:52 AM
thanks for the upates & stay safe. Its definitely confusing figuring out whos playing where & when.
Posted by: m | September 19, 2007 6:54 AM
Last time it was SARS, this time it's a typhoon. The message is clear: No More World Cups in China.
It will be interesting to see what happens during the Olympics; I mean, we're due for a major, severe influenza pandemic and all.
Posted by: I-270, Exit 1 | September 19, 2007 8:16 AM
By the way Steve, if your doing a Doors theme - Writers on the Storm, I woke up this morning (and I got myself a Tsingtao) - you have to rhyme "Shanghai" with " for you and I."
Posted by: I-270, Exit 1 | September 19, 2007 8:20 AM
It was inevitable that FIFA would have to postpone all four matches, so that they would still be played concurrently. Why didn't they just do it in the first place?
Goff: You said you'd be coming online at 11:00 (a.m. or p.m., depending on your point of view). The Post site says 11:30. Please clarify. Thanks.
Posted by: Section 410 | September 19, 2007 8:24 AM
Hmm... The team used the pool for exercise... Pictures?
Posted by: Shatz | September 19, 2007 11:52 AM
So...Norway and especially Canada got off to quick starts....
Posted by: sitruc | September 20, 2007 5:26 AM
Norway has scored the 500th goal of the competition while going up 2-0 over Ghana.
Posted by: sitruc | September 20, 2007 5:42 AM
Norway has scored #501 off of a PK to go up 3-0
Posted by: sitruc | September 20, 2007 5:45 AM
At half
Norway 3:0 Ghana
Australia 0:1 Canada
Posted by: sitruc | September 20, 2007 5:49 AM
Currently
Australia 1:1 Canada
Norway 6:0 Ghana
Posted by: sitruc | September 20, 2007 6:22 AM
Amazing finish to the Australia-Canada match. Australia, the better team for the day, earns a 2:2 draw in stoppage.
Ghana lost to Norway 7:2 in the other match. Norway wins the group.
Posted by: sitruc | September 20, 2007 6:53 AM
Writers on the Storm? I guess if the power goes out than the hotel guests would be asking the staff to "Light My Fire" when you were without power as you were seeing "The End" of the storm and "Waiting for the Sun." And of course probably preparing a bio on that "LA Woman" Shannon Boxx for your next submission on the team.
Stay safe and keep up the good puns!
Posted by: JoeW | September 20, 2007 1:54 PM
lets call me just free
Posted by: calls | September 27, 2007 6:26 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Thanks for the updates. I'm still confused as hell about what has been postponed and what hasn't.