Why super typhoon Yolanda was so deadly

Cecil Morella, Agence France-Presse

Posted at Nov 05 2018 06:57 PM | Updated as of Nov 05 2018 07:18 PM

Residents light candles amid heavy rains during

a memorial for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda
at Fatima Village in Tacloban City on
November 9, 2017. Roi Lagarde, ABS-CBN
News

MANILA - When Super Typhoon Haiyan struck

in 2013 it was the disaster-prone Philippines' worst
storm on record, with 7,350 people dead or
missing.

Several factors caused the staggering death toll:

STRONGEST STORM

With gusts exceeding 305 kilometers (190 miles) per hour at first landfall, Haiyan was the strongest
ever to hit land at the time. Typhoons more commonly reach peak velocity while still travelling over
oceans.

The powerful front drove a giant wall of seawater called a storm surge, estimated to be 7.5 meters
(24.6 feet) high, into coastal towns like Tacloban, a city of 240,000 people.

Overall, Haiyan tore across a group of islands with a combined area the size of Portugal.

LOW-LYING ISLANDS

The Philippines is the first major landmass on the Pacific Ocean's typhoon belt. A wall of mountains
on the coast of the main island of Luzon dampens some of the blows, but the smaller, flatter islands -
- such as those that lay in Haiyan's path -- are more exposed.

Much of Tacloban sits less than 5 meters above sea level. The town and others nearby were
defenseless against the storm surge that funneled through a shallow bay sandwiched between Leyte
and Samar islands.

INADEQUATE WARNINGS

Even though the hardest-hit areas received early warnings, the weather service and other officials
later admitted that the victims were unfamiliar with the term "storm surge".

The last deadly storm surge in Tacloban had hit in 1887, more than a century before Haiyan. In a
country with scores of regional languages, the government also did not have local terms to be able to
communicate the phenomenon to everyone.
After the disaster, the government agency worked with linguists to craft simpler meteorological
terms to ensure the danger posed by typhoons, floods, landslides and other adverse events would be
fully understood by all.

EXTREME POVERTY

In a nation where one in 5 people earn less than two dollars a day, the people in Haiyan's path stood
out for their deep poverty. Many of the victims built their homes on the islands' narrow coastal plains
and lived off subsistence fishing and farming.

Haiyan destroyed or damaged 1.14 million houses, many of them made of cheap, flimsy materials
that stood no chance against nature's wrath.

FAILURE TO EVACUATE

The national government, through a geohazard mapping program begun in 2006, had flagged most of
the areas that were prone to the impacts of natural disasters.

However, local governments failed to evacuate many of the vulnerable population away from the
danger zones, partly because they did not fully appreciate the threat and partly because they had not
built enough shelters.

In the town of Hernani on Samar island, where Haiyan made the first of many landfalls, several
families were wiped out by a storm surge when they left their flimsy shacks to ride out the storm at a
low-lying school built along the coast, neighbors told AFP.

TASK 2: LIST AT LEAST 5 MEASURES TO DO BEFORE THE TYPHOON

Source: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/05/18/why-super-typhoon-yolanda-was-so-deadly
2005- Hurricane Wilma
During the second week of October 2005, in the midst of the busiest Atlantic hurricane season in
recorded history, a tropical disturbance forming southwest of Jamaica would become the most
powerful hurricane ever documented in the Atlantic Basin. Hurricane Wilma had a complex
beginning, and would go on to inflict extensive damage.

The initially ill-defined system organized into a tropical depression on 15 October. At first, the
depression moved erratically and slowly in the waters between Jamaica and Central America. The
depression strengthened into a tropical storm on 17 October. The next day, Tropical Storm Wilma
turned west-northwest and strengthened into a hurricane. The system then explosively intensified into
a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 278 km/h (173 mph) in a span of just 24 hours. It continued to
strengthen, and on 19 October, Hurricane Wilma broke the record books when it reached its peak
intensity- the hurricane’s minimum central pressure dropped to 882 mb (hPa), the lowest pressure
ever measured in an Atlantic hurricane (as of the beginning of the 2010 hurricane season).

Satellite image of Hurricane Wilma taken on October 23

by a NASA satellite. Source: NASA

Hurricane Wilma weakened slightly, to a Category 4

storm, as it approached the coast of Mexico’s Yucatán
Peninsula. On 21 October, the hurricane made landfall on
the island of Cozumel with winds of 241 km/h (150 mph).
In addition to strong winds, the storm also brought
torrential rains and a large storm surge to the Yucatan
Peninsula. In the town of Islas Mujeres, about 13 km (8
mi) northeast of Cancún, over 1575 mm (62 in) of rainfall
was recorded. Significant flooding occurred throughout
the Yucatan Peninsula, stranding hundreds of tourists in
popular Mexican resort destinations. Property damage was very high in the hotel sector of Cancún,
with estimates indicating $1.5 billion in losses. Mexico’s agriculture industry was also severely
impacted by Hurricane Wilma. Agricultural losses totaled $4.6 billion (2005 USD) with total
damages in Mexico at $7.5 billion (2005 USD).

On 23 October, Hurricane Wilma moved off the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 2
hurricane with winds of 158 km/h (98 mph). After emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, the storm
accelerated towards Florida guided by a strong steering current. Over the open, warm waters of the
Gulf, Hurricane Wilma again strengthened to a Category 3 Hurricane, with winds reaching 204 km/h
(127 mph). On 24 October, the storm made another landfall near Cape Romano in southwestern
Florida as a Category 3 hurricane. The hurricane moved very quickly, crossing the Florida Peninsula
in just 4 ½ hours. Hurricane Wilma was able to strengthen once more upon reaching the Atlantic
Ocean and was a Category 3 hurricane around midnight on 25 October. The hurricane moved quickly
toward the northeast with no other landfalls and lost its tropical characteristics by the time it moved
past Nova Scotia, Canada, on 26 October.
Hurricane Wilma impacted southeast Florida, including the Florida Keys, with a 1.5-m (5-ft) storm
surge. Due to the limited amount of time that the storm was over Florida, damage from flooding and
high winds was greatly limited to infrastructure. Approximately 6,000,000 people in Florida lost
electricity due to Wilma with most regaining service after 8-15 days. A combination of infrastructure
damage, flooding, damage to sugar cane and citrus crops and other insured losses brought the total
damage in Florida to over $20 billion, making Hurricane Wilma among the five costliest storms in
United States history.

The deaths of 23 people can be directly attributed to Hurricane Wilma, half of which occurred in
Haiti due to mudslides and at least 6 occurring in Florida. Overall damages totaled to $29 billion with
the US and Mexico reporting losses of $20.6 billion and $7.5 billion, respectively, and Cuba
reporting $700 Million (all figures 2005 USD).

TASK 2: LIST AT LEAST 5 MEASURES TO DO DURING THE TYPHOON

Source: http://www.hurricanescience.org/history/storms/2000s/wilma/
The US has a lot to learn from how India handled
Cyclone Fani
By Manoj Dora & Arabinda Kumar PadheeMay 14, 2019

Fani, a rare summer cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, hit eastern India on May 03. It is one of the
strongest cyclones to have hit India in the last 20 years, according to the Indian government’s
meteorological department. Storm surges and powerful winds reaching 125 mph blew off roofs,
damaged power lines, and
uprooted countless trees.

But the worst-affected state,

Odisha, has been successful in
keeping the loss of life and
numbers of affected people to
a minimum. This is the result
of a very effective strategy of
disaster preparation and quick
responding.

The United Nations office for

Disaster Risk Deduction
(UNISDR) and other
organisations have hailed
government and volunteer efforts that have ensured the levels of destruction have been kept to a
minimum. According to official estimates, 64 people lost their lives due to the devastating cyclone
Fani. But considering the power of the cyclone, it is remarkable that more lives have not been lost.

To put the death toll in perspective, the 1999 Odisha cyclone (which had 155 mph winds) killed
9,658 people and caused $2.5 billion in damages in the state. It was this super cyclone in 1999 that
led the state to become better prepared for future cyclones.

The government’s “zero casualty” policy for natural disasters and the near accuracy of the India
meteorological department’s early warning system have helped reduce the possibility of deaths from
cyclone Fani. A record 1.2 million people (equal to the population of Mauritius) were evacuated in less
than 48 hours, and almost 7,000 kitchens, catering to 9,000 shelters, were made functional overnight.
This mammoth exercise involved more than 45,000 volunteers.

The statistics are striking when compared to the impact of recent big weather events around the world.
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017 with wind speeds of 175 mph, it caused a death toll of
2,975. The same year, Hurricane Harvey struck Texas with winds of 130 mph and caused devastating
flooding. There was $125 billion in damage and at least 68 direct storm-related deaths reported in
Texas. Most recently, cyclone Idai hit Mozambique on March 14 and ripped through Madagascar,
Malawi, and Zimbabwe, with more than 1,000 people feared dead.

So the Indian state of Odisha’s ability to put such an effective disaster management plan in place and
save thousands of lives is a template that the world can learn from. This, after all, is a state where the
average income is less than $5 a day. We identify four key takeaways from Odisha.
1. Build a relief infrastructure

Until 1999, Odisha didn’t have a well laid out plan for disaster management. Two months after the
cyclone hit, the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority was set up and plans put in place. Around
900 cyclone shelters have been built in vulnerable pockets of the state, with systems in place for the
evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people. By 2001, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force was also
set up to conduct rescue operations and distribute relief.

There is a clear command and control structure for disaster relief and there are clear protocols in place
for carrying out relief operations. These were successfully used in managing cyclone Phailin in 2013 (a
storm five times the size of hurricane Katrina), cyclone Hudhud in 2014, and cyclone Fani.

2. Accuracy of early warning systems

The India Meteorological Department has built an effective service to predict accurate timings of
cyclone formation in the Bay of Bengal and when it will make landfall along India’s coastline. This early
warning system enables the state to be disaster ready and minimise loss of lives. It’s then crucial that
people follow the protocols in place when the warnings come in.

3. Clear communication plan

Roughly 2.6 million text messages were sent to locals in clear language before cyclone Fani hit, keeping
those potentially affected alert. Regular press briefings were made by officials to update people of the
approaching cyclone. People were repeatedly advised over all forms of media not to panic and given
clear “do and don’ts.” This helped in the record evacuation of 1.2 million people to safe buildings.

4. Effective coordination of groups

Preparations to fight the onslaught of Fani involved a number of government agencies, as well as local
community groups and volunteers working together. The government’s disaster response forces were
pre-positioned in vulnerable locations, food packets for air-dropping were made ready for air force
helicopters to drop to people. Senior state officials and police officers were sent to the affected districts
to co-ordinate efforts of various agencies.

Cyclone Fani has, however, left a fury of damage to properties and public infrastructure. The post-
cyclone recovery will be a daunting challenge to the administration in Odisha, demanding a lot of
resources. In the aftermath of the 1999 super cyclone, the state relied on a number of community-based
groups and volunteers to help rebuild communities. The same goes for today, but they are in a much
better position thanks to the disaster preparedness and risk mitigation followed before the storm hit.

TASK 2: LIST AT LEAST 5 MEASURES TO DO AFTER THE TYPHOON

Source: https://qz.com/india/1618717/indias-handling-of-cyclone-fani-has-a-lesson-for-the-us/
What to do before, during, after a super typhoon

Before the typhoon, the public is advised to store adequate supply of food and clean water. Prepare
foods that need not be cooked.

Keep flashlights, candles and battery-powered radios within easy reach.

Examine your house and repair its unstable parts.

Always keep yourself updated with the latest weather report.

Harvest crops that can be yielded already.

Secure domesticated animals in a safe place.

For fisherfolk, place boats in a safe area.

Should you need to evacuate, bring clothes, first aid kit, candles/flashlight, battery-powered radio,
food, etc.

During the typhoon, everyone is advised to stay inside the house.

Always keep yourself updated with the latest weather report.

If safe drinking water is not available, boil water for at least 20 minutes. Place it in a container with
cover.

Keep an eye on lighted candles or gas lamps.

Do not wade through floodwaters to avoid being electrocuted and contracting diseases.

If there is a need to move to an evacuation center, follow these reminders:

Evacuate calmly.

Close the windows and turn off the main power switch.

Put important appliances and belongings in a high ground.

Avoid the way leading to the river.

If your house was destroyed, make sure that it is already safe and stable when you enter.

Beware of dangerous animals such as snakes that may have entered your house.

Watch out for live wires or outlets immersed in water.

Report damaged electrical cables and fallen electric posts to authorities.

Do not let water accumulate in tires, cans or pots to avoid creating a favorable condition for mosquito
breeding