Typhoon Haiyan – Vulnerabilities and Resiliency in the Philippines
On November 8th, 2013, the Philippines faced a disaster with tremendous impact. Typhoon Haiyan was a devastating super storm that affected the islands of the Philippines, especially Tacloban city. According to Barmania (2014) the typhoon, that had wind speeds around 150 mph, killed 6200 and displaced 4 million people, leaving the country in despair.
Characteristics of typhoon Haiyan and Tacloban City:
The characteristics of typhoon Haiyan were very specific and the physical setting of Tacloban city amplified the impact of this super storm. In general, typhoons are tropical storms consisting of intense winds, flooding and rain. As Bower and McCabe (2014) suggest, they form …show more content…
A storm surge is a huge issue at every typhoon but Haiyan’s surge had two major characteristics that made it so strong: Its’ height and its’ speed (Bower and McCabe 2014). Typhoon Haiyan’s storm surge was very similar to the surge of a tsunami due to the location of Tacloban city. Tacloban is located at a very shallow and protected bay and the shallow off shore terrain caused the water to be pushed up and the narrow confines of the bay squeezed the water as well. Additionally, the speed was immense and similar to a tsunami because the winds were rapidly shifting off shore. Bower and McCabe illustrate that Hurricane Sandy, for example, brought a gradual surge that took 24 hours to bring 14 feet of water into New York and New Jersey but Haiyan’s 20 feet storm surge arrived in minutes and washed the city away. The storm surge was negative which means that winds came from the north at the beginning and caused the water to be pushed out of the bay but as the winds were turning the water was suddenly pushed back into the bay completely. Nobody considered that the surge would be this big and it was completely underestimated by media and warning stations (Bower and McCabe …show more content…
There exist many mitigation and preparedness activities: These include community-based disaster management, undertaking socio-economic projects to reduce the people’s vulnerability, capacity building through training, small-scale infrastructural measures, institutionalizing DM work among the LGU’s, advocacy work to mainstream alternative approaches and confrontational advocacy and mass mobilisation to counter threats from inappropriate development (Luna
On November 8th, 2013, the Philippines faced a disaster with tremendous impact. Typhoon Haiyan was a devastating super storm that affected the islands of the Philippines, especially Tacloban city. According to Barmania (2014) the typhoon, that had wind speeds around 150 mph, killed 6200 and displaced 4 million people, leaving the country in despair.
Characteristics of typhoon Haiyan and Tacloban City:
The characteristics of typhoon Haiyan were very specific and the physical setting of Tacloban city amplified the impact of this super storm. In general, typhoons are tropical storms consisting of intense winds, flooding and rain. As Bower and McCabe (2014) suggest, they form …show more content…
A storm surge is a huge issue at every typhoon but Haiyan’s surge had two major characteristics that made it so strong: Its’ height and its’ speed (Bower and McCabe 2014). Typhoon Haiyan’s storm surge was very similar to the surge of a tsunami due to the location of Tacloban city. Tacloban is located at a very shallow and protected bay and the shallow off shore terrain caused the water to be pushed up and the narrow confines of the bay squeezed the water as well. Additionally, the speed was immense and similar to a tsunami because the winds were rapidly shifting off shore. Bower and McCabe illustrate that Hurricane Sandy, for example, brought a gradual surge that took 24 hours to bring 14 feet of water into New York and New Jersey but Haiyan’s 20 feet storm surge arrived in minutes and washed the city away. The storm surge was negative which means that winds came from the north at the beginning and caused the water to be pushed out of the bay but as the winds were turning the water was suddenly pushed back into the bay completely. Nobody considered that the surge would be this big and it was completely underestimated by media and warning stations (Bower and McCabe …show more content…
There exist many mitigation and preparedness activities: These include community-based disaster management, undertaking socio-economic projects to reduce the people’s vulnerability, capacity building through training, small-scale infrastructural measures, institutionalizing DM work among the LGU’s, advocacy work to mainstream alternative approaches and confrontational advocacy and mass mobilisation to counter threats from inappropriate development (Luna