CENTRAL PHILIPPINES RAVAGED BY YOLANDA: 1,200 DEAD

By Belarmino Dabalos Saguing

Rome, Italy 09/11/2013

The Philippine Red Cross estimated that more than 1,000 people were killed in the coastal city of Tacloban and at least 200 in hard-hit Samar province. The body count is feared to grow as access to the hard affected areas are opened. 

Source :  http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-super-typhoon-haiyan-font-1-200-feared-dead-in-typhoon-devastated-philippines-1.396127 )

Based on satellite images, meteorologists have said the super-typhoon could be the most powerful storm ever to make landfall. Due to cut-off communications, it was impossible to know the full extent of casualties and damage.

The category-five storm swept through the islands, powered by fearsome winds and forcing thousands to flee to safer ground. Forecasters have warned of potentially catastrophic damage. Nearly 750,000 people were forced to flee their homes. 

The Philippine Red Cross estimated that more than 1,000 people were killed in the coastal city of Tacloban and at least 200 in hard-hit Samar province. The body count is feared to grow as access to the hard affected areas are opened.

Yolanda left the Philippine coasts a few hours ago and is now heading towards Vietnam or China.

The category-five storm swept through the islands, powered by fearsome winds and forcing thousands to flee to safer ground. Forecasters have warned of potentially catastrophic damage in a region already struggling to recover from an earthquake. Nearly 750,000 people were forced to flee their homes.

"The devastation is, I don't have the words for it," Interior Secretary Max Roxas said. "It's really horrific. It's a great human tragedy."

The country is still struggling to recover from the effects of this year’s previous typhoons, a military confrontation between government forces and Islamic separatist rebels, a massive ongoing corruption cases and a 7.2 strong earthquake that devastated the island of Bohol a month ago. This means that the country’s capacity to react to the latest calamity is by now overstretched.  

What really hit the country?

Typhoons and hurricanes are both tropical cyclones, but they assume different names depending on their location.  Typhoons form in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, east of 160E. They become super typhoons if they reach maximum sustained 1-minute surface winds of at least 240 kilometers per hour (150 mph or 130 knots). 

A super typhoon is the equivalent of a strong category 4 or 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, or a category 5 severe tropical cyclone in the Australian basin. 

The Philippines is located on the western rim of the Pacific Ocean, which is an extremely active area for tropical storms due to the huge expanse of deep, warm ocean water. More than 7,000 islands make up the Philippines - meaning it has plenty of exposed coast - but the bulk of its fast-growing population lives on just 11 of them.