Typhoon Iris No. 3 on August 23, 1959.

Typhoon is called "Fengtai" in Xiamen dialect, just like a guest is called "Renke". A typhoon is called a "typhoon".

Basically I am not afraid of typhoons, because typhoons are afraid of Xiamen. They will hide and run away when they see Xiamen. Besides, there is still Taiwan protecting the front. When the typhoon encounters the central mountain range of Treasure Island, it will either break up or run out of stamina. Except that time when I was a kid.

I was still young that year, and our family had just moved back to Xiamen from Gulangyu Island. In my memory, there were many typhoons when I was a child, and they were the most "large". The roaring sound was scary but exciting at night. I don't like to live quietly, I would rather be noisy every day, so I like to have frequent typhoons.

When the typhoon comes, our whole family, together with all the neighbors, is arranged by the "Curie (Committee)" to sleep in a nearby "no wood" experimental primary school. The houses there are very big, and many people sleep on the floor together. It's really "busy" (lively). At that time, houses with flat roofs made of steel and concrete, which we called “wooden-free”, were the safest. My grandma and I have a family of 10 people, and we always live in an eight-square-meter house with small red tiles on it. This is boring.

That night, I have the impression that there was not much wind. The classroom windows were covered with large crosses covered with kraft paper (this was originally to prevent shells from coming from the Kinmen side, so the glass would not break and hurt people). There was no big movement outside, it was not very fun, and I fell asleep in disappointment.

Before dawn, a neighbor kid woke me up and shouted to me that the typhoon was coming. Sure enough, one after another the wind screamed shrilly, accompanied by whines and whistle-like sounds, and the sound of something collapsing and breaking could be heard in the distance. This is the "biggest" storm I've ever experienced. I cheered happily, actually a little scared.

It was daybreak, but the storm had not left yet. Several pieces of glass were broken. Looking out, all the trees in the school playground had fallen to the ground. None of us can go out. About noon, the wind finally stopped, and someone came in to say something. The ferry blew over in the wind. I really wanted to go and see it, but it was raining heavily.

The next day, the rain stopped for a while, and my friend and I hurried to the ferry. Along the way, I saw a very big tree falling in the middle of the road. Some houses had their tiles gone and some had fallen down.

The ground on the ferry was flooded with water. The entire transition bridge fell into the sea. Many long stone steps on the stone steps where the sampans were parked were blown away by the wind. Some broken boats were lying on the dirty ground. Shaking in the water. The shore also collapsed in several places. Xiamen has completely changed.

This is Typhoon Iris No. 3 on August 23, 1959. ---I didn’t know until I grew up.

The typhoon was originally estimated to be Category 7. It came from Shantou, but suddenly changed its direction, and the wind force suddenly increased sharply. It entered the Taiwan Strait, turned left, and landed directly in Xiamen. It is said that the maximum gust at that time was 17, and the heavy rain caught up with the astronomical tide. The urban area was flooded up to one meter, and the Jimei seawall was destroyed. The giant tree surrounded by three people was uprooted.

Nowadays, whenever the old people mention the wind tower, they will definitely talk about that time.

The typhoon intensified instantly as it moved forward, and its strangeness and changeability were beyond everyone's expectation. The losses of people and property and the painful lessons have left an indelible shadow on the entire Xiamen, even Fujian and the country. So far, no typhoon in Fujian can compare with it. It has always maintained some unbroken records, including the first use of foreign currency to import the only advanced meteorological measurement equipment in China at that time.