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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| World's strongest typhoon kills 1,200 in Philippines |
| 2013-11-10 |
| [Pak Daily Times] The strongest typhoons ever to make landfall devastated the central Philippines, killing more than 1,000 people in one city alone and 200 in another province, the Red Thingy estimated on Saturday, as reports of high casualties began to emerge. A day after Typhoon Haiyan churned through the Philippine archipelago in a straight line from east to west, rescue teams struggled to reach far-flung regions, hampered by washed out roads, many choked with debris and fallen trees. The corpse count is expected to rise sharply from the fast-moving storm, whose circumference eclipsed the whole country and which late on Saturday was heading for Vietnam. Among the hardest hit was coastal Tacloban in central Leyte province, where preliminary estimates suggest more than 1,000 people were killed, said Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Thingy, as water surges rushed through the city. "An estimated more than 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban as reported by our Red Thingy teams," she told Rooters. She expected a more exact number to emerge after a more precise counting of bodies on the ground in those regions. Witnesses said bodies covered in plastic were lying on the streets. Television footage shows cars piled atop each other. "The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami," said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, head of the UN Disaster Assessment Coordination Team sent to Tacloban, referring to the 2004 earthquake and tsunami. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #10 Glenmore, I had a Double posting problem recently, It was a faulty Mouse (Push Buttons Worn out) I replaced it, all fixed now, Mice don't wear out supposedly, mine did. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-11-10 23:28 |
| #9 Double deleted, Glenmore. It's been that kind of day. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-11-10 23:11 |
| #8 Venture - Glenmore has been rattled by the storm in the Philippines. |
| Posted by: Slihemp Snoring 2013-11-10 17:29 |
| #7 I double posted again - second time today. No idea why it's happening. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-11-10 17:08 |
| #6 Agreed, Abu. The pictures I have seen look a lot like the Mississippi Gulf Coast after either Katrina or Camille. I am ignorant of how well the Philippines are able to evacuate endangered areas, but if they did not, I absolutely DO know the effects. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-11-10 17:07 |
| #5 Debate all you want about the actual wind speed. I understand that Al Gore will claim the extreme weather is caused by little old me driving an car that runs on fossil fuel. But I used that car to drive to church this morning and I put a little extra in the plate when they passed it around, designated for typhoon relief. We have a large Filipino community in the greater San Diego area and they are very likeable people. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2013-11-10 16:58 |
| #4 Unfortunately, there was no nuclear reactor in the area for the Professional Propaganda Ministry to scare the bejesus out of the public so coverage will be second or third tier. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-11-10 12:16 |
| #3 No matter how you calculate/estimate the winds, this was a seriously powerful storm. I will be very surprised if there are not a whole lot (order of magnitude) more than 1200 killed - and there will be many missing who were also killed. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2013-11-10 09:06 |
| #2 The Philippine Met office, Pagasa, reported highest sustained wind speed of 235 kilometers per hour, and highest gusts of 275 kph. The British media- Daily Mail and the BBC converted the numbers to miles per hour and other media have just swallowed that whole. Watts Up With That has screen shots of the Pagasa reports. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2013-11-10 00:37 |
| #1 The peak winds on this system were estimated by satellite. We don't actually know whether the strongest sustained winds were 200mph or 180mph or 160 mph. It will take a lot of forensic work, looking at anemometer records, structural damage, tree trunks, etc. to get a better estimate and even then, it will just be an estimate. This is partly because the eye of the storm was quite small and the highest winds were in a narrow ring around the eye. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2013-11-10 00:15 |