Ok, I’ll stop complaining about having a bunch of trees come down on that windy weekend a couple of months back.
378km/h winds! Ye gods.
Manila: Super Typhoon Haiyan, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, slammed into the Philippines after forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
Haiyan had top winds of almost 315 kilometres per hour when it was about 489 miles (786 km) southeast of Manila, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said at 3am Manila time. Winds gusted to as high as 378 km/h, the Navy said.
“If it maintains its strength, there has never been a storm this strong making landfall anywhere in the world,” said Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "This is off the charts."
The storm went ashore at about 5am in Guiuan, eastern Samar, the Philippines Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said. Advertisement
Five areas on the island of Visayas, which suffered a 7.2-magnitude earthquake less than a month ago, had been placed on highest storm alert, forecaster Jori Loiz said in a televised briefing. President Benigno Aquino, in a televised address, warned of serious danger and said Haiyan may cause more damage than storm Bopha, which killed more than 1000 people in Mindanao in December 2012.
The Philippines, battered by about 20 cyclones a year, was the nation most affected by natural disasters in 2012, with more than 2000 people killed, according to the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. Monsoon rains swamped more than half of the Manila region in August, causing at least 27 deaths and shutting offices and financial markets for two days.
Storm Impact
Haiyan may inundate rivers, create mudflows and cause storm surges as high as 6 meters, Mr Aquino said. Three air force cargo planes, 2 navy ships, helicopters and relief boats are on standby, the president said. About 78,000 families were evacuated in Albay province, Governor Joey Salceda said on his Facebook account.
Mr Masters said Tacloban, the capital of the Philippine province of Leyte, would take a direct hit and winds of at least 209 km/h may sweep as far as 160 km/h inland.
“There isn’t much built on the Philippines that can withstand winds like that,” Mr Masters said.
Heavy rains from storms usually cause the highest death tolls on the Philippines, Masters said. Flooding may not be the worst threat this time because Haiyan is moving fairly fast. The high winds and storm surge have the potential to cause catastrophic damage, he said.
Storm Records
The true power of Haiyan isn’t known because reconnaissance planes haven’t flown into it, Mr Masters said. The strongest tropical cyclone on record was Super Typhoon Nancy in 1961 with top winds of 346 km/h. He said many believe the estimated wind speeds of storms between the 1940s to 1960s was too high.
Since 1969, only three storms have been as powerful as Haiyan, Mr Masters wrote on his blog: Super Typhoon Tip in 1979 in the Pacific and Atlantic hurricanes Camille in 1969 and Allen in 1980.
The strongest storm to hit land was Camille, which went ashore in Mississippi with winds near 313 km/h, Mr Masters said. While there are some estimates that Camille’s winds were closer to 321 km/h, the exact speed is unknown because the instruments were destroyed, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
The Philippines government has placed relief supplies worth 195 million pesos ($US4.5 million) in Samar and Leyte islands in the Visayas, Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma said in Manila.
After crossing the Philippines, Haiyan is expected to strike Vietnam in several days, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency.
“It is going to be a huge problem for Vietnam and Laos,” Mr Masters said. As much as a foot of rain may fall there, he said.
Living in HK ( which tends to miss most ) you find that the typhoons lose serious wind strength once they hit land. Its common for a typhoon to lose around 50% of its speed once it hits land. So a typhoon with a wind speed of 250km, may drop to 125km when it hits land.
l have been in touch with a local friend who is close to the affected area. A place l stayed at in Tacloban has been flattened, smashed. That country probably gets hit every year more stormy weather than any other nation. They get hit from two different directions, from the south west and the south east depending on which monsoon season. Without the Philippine archipelago acting as a buffer Vietnam and China would be hit a lot worse than they are. l stayed at one place 20 years ago when a typhoon hit Bagiou, which is in the mountains of northern Luzon. l was staying with a family and they wouldn't let me leave the house for two days. What conditions were like down on the coast, l can barely begin to imagine.
Anyway, no one has missed clock-on this morning, so they're still fairly non-plussed by it.
Unless they are totally inhuman I doubt that a death toll of 10,000 would leave them "non-plussed"
The worst thing for me about this disaster is that they knew well in advance that it was coming, and evacuations were employed, yet the toll is still so severe. I've not been to the Phillipines but it would appear that this countries poor social demographic has cost lives on this occasion.
Can say that the Phillipines is not as organised as some countries, but it was a freak storm ( in that it hardly lost any power when hitting land ) and it hit some under-developed parts of the Phillipines.
Anyway, no one has missed clock-on this morning, so they're still fairly non-plussed by it.
Unless they are totally inhuman I doubt that a death toll of 10,000 would leave them "non-plussed"
The worst thing for me about this disaster is that they knew well in advance that it was coming, and evacuations were employed, yet the toll is still so severe. I've not been to the Phillipines but it would appear that this countries poor social demographic has cost lives on this occasion.
First off, they were non-plussed about the storm itself. They're resilient folk, the Filipinos, and typhoons are regular enough for them not to panic every time there's a new one. I didn't ask him how he felt about 10,000 of his fellow countrymen losing their lives, but I'll tell him today that Bombamick from the internet reckons he should be sadder. And secondly, being poor has "cost lives". It's so simple everyone - if only they had money, then this would have been completely prevented.
You're probably being well-intentioned, but you just wrote some really, really stupid things.
I'm happy to see you are talking about this. I hope it may fire some of you up to help in some way.
I was in Bohol a few weeks ago, helping a friend who is developing a small resort there. I came back for work 5 days before the Earthquake hit, which had an epicenter only 50 km from where i was staying. My friend, who is an Aussie, based in Cambodia usually, had to send texts to me here so I could relay what ever news I could about relief efforts, road openings etc. The first thing that happened in Bohol was the local government leaving, such is the nature of the place.
Now a similar thing is happening, but on such a larger scale it is hard to fathom. My friends daughter lives in Tacloban, we have no idea if she is alive, or injured, or worse. It seems it will be many days until we can.
I traveled a lot in the Visaya's region of the Philippines...the people are of a different ilk than those of Manila and Luzon. Friendly, helpful, on more than one occasion I was fed and housed by them, they asked for nothing in return, but news, story's, maybe a sing along (they all love music).
I am struggling with this at the moment, as the pictures are of places I have been, and know quite well.
Anyway, no one has missed clock-on this morning, so they're still fairly non-plussed by it.
Unless they are totally inhuman I doubt that a death toll of 10,000 would leave them "non-plussed"
The worst thing for me about this disaster is that they knew well in advance that it was coming, and evacuations were employed, yet the toll is still so severe. I've not been to the Phillipines but it would appear that this countries poor social demographic has cost lives on this occasion.
First off, they were non-plussed about the storm itself. They're resilient folk, the Filipinos, and typhoons are regular enough for them not to panic every time there's a new one. I didn't ask him how he felt about 10,000 of his fellow countrymen losing their lives, but I'll tell him today that Bombamick from the internet reckons he should be sadder. And secondly, being poor has "cost lives". It's so simple everyone - if only they had money, then this would have been completely prevented.
You're probably being well-intentioned, but you just wrote some really, really stupid things.
I was "being" well intentioned however I feel you misinterpreted my post. Firstly lets define social demographic "relating to, or involving a combination of social and demographic factors " So by my own analysis this concerns the welfare of the community combined with its relative status according to its global location. Sure this catastrophe was extreme and devastating but consider Katrina in New Orleans which killed 1800 people against this monstrosity which claims more than 10,000 souls. No Louisiana Super dome in the Phillipines. As for the non-plussed argument, I accept that at the time of writing you would obviously expect that your colleagues had no understanding of the greater toll this disaster was taking. Put simply this is a sad time for humanity.