Typhoon haiyan

[hhunaeh]

I wanted to know how this storm and its after effects were different from phailin. I found this article which gives you an idea. Struggle for Survival in Philippine City Shattered by Typhoon Philippines is made up of many small islands, so moving inland with a few days notice is not easy. Is there anyplace inland in a small island? The storm was strong enough to damage even the concrete structures.

The civilian airport terminal has shattered walls and gaping holes in the roof where steel beams protrude, twisted and torn by winds far more powerful than those of Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall near New Orleans in 2005.

Even the govt shelters were flooded. Do people remember the broken down schools people from orissa were taking shelter in?

One of the saddest and deadliest moments came when hundreds of people flocked to Tacloban’s domed sports arena at the urging of municipal officials, who believed its sturdy roof would withstand the wind. The roof did, but the arena flooded, and many inside drowned or were trampled in a frenzied rush to higher seats. The top civil defense official of the Philippines said in an interview after inspecting the damage that the storm surge had been the highest in the country’s modern history. Nothing like this had ever happened, perhaps explaining why so few thought they needed to flee inland and instead went to evacuation centers near the coast.

The surge caused most of the deaths

The sea level rose 10 to 13 feet and filled streets and homes deep in the city, propelled by sustained winds of at least 140 miles per hour and gusts that were much stronger. “It was a tsunami-like storm surge; it is the first time,” said Eduardo del Rosario, the executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Tacloban has been hit by typhoons for decades, but never had the sea risen high enough to pour over the swath of low salt marshes and inundate the city’s shady streets, he said.

The horror after Haiyan Typhoons rarely hit the central and southern Philippines, and people there tend not to take storm warnings as seriously as do the storm-hardened peoples of northern Luzon island

The Philippines is accustomed to tropical cyclones. About 20 pass over or near it each year. As Typhoon Haiyan approached, tens of thousands of people in its path followed the ordinary drill: leaving their homes and sheltering in public buildings regarded as being storm-proof. But tens of thousands more clearly failed to follow the drill. People tend to be reluctant to leave their homes or businesses in times of emergency, for fear of looters. Typhoons rarely hit the central and southern Philippines, and people there tend not to take storm warnings as seriously as do the storm-hardened peoples of northern Luzon island. So in the centre of the country ordinary disaster risk-reduction and management measures have proven themselves unequal to challenges posed on an extraordinary scale. Ordinary warning measures were insufficient to rouse many people to abandon their homes and now it turns out that the disaster-relief agencies lack the resources they would need to tend to the damage that has been done.

[hhunaeh]

Central Philippines was still recovering from an earlier 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Dozens dead as magnitude-7.1 earthquake hits the Philippines

[FischerTal]

RIP

[hhunaeh]

This article gives a few more reasons why the deaths were fewer in case of phailin. But i don't know if we will ever know how true they are and they may seem like gloating at a time like this How India Prevented Catastrophe When It Was Hit by a Massive Storm Last Month

India’s Phailin experience may not be fully relevant to the Philippines — Haiyan was bigger and created an unanticipated, deadly 6-m storm surge that acted like a killer tsunami, and the central Philippines was still recovering from an earlier 7.2-magnitude earthquake. But, in preparing for Phailin, the Indian authorities did what they hadn’t before. They evacuated nearly a million people, some forcefully, to hundreds of new cyclone shelters and some 10,000 sturdy schools and government buildings. Disaster-management personnel were deployed by the hundreds, and the armed forces were put on standby, as were more than 40 aid agencies and charities to help with postdisaster relief. All major officials in the relevant districts were provided with satellite phones to prevent a breakdown in communications. At the local level, officials in the coastal states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, which were in Phailin’s path, combined with NGOs to conduct drills for residents to lock up homes, herd cattle to safe places, and carry important documents and sufficient clothing to shelters when disaster alerts were issued. India has also invested in technology — satellites and Doppler radar — to provide early warning. Shelters were built and food and water stored five days ahead of Phailin’s landfall. “Satellite applications combined with good governance can be a very powerful cocktail,†says Susmita Mohanty, CEO of Indian aerospace company Earth2Orbit.

[hhunaeh]

Typhoon Haiyan Storm Surges Caught Philippines by Surprise Govt shelters were not strong enough. I am sure indian shelters are no different.

MANILA, Philippines — Hours before Typhoon Haiyan hit, Philippine authorities moved 800,000 people to sturdy evacuation centers — churches, schools and public buildings. But the brick-and-mortar structures were simply no match for the jet-force winds and massive walls of waves that swept ashore Friday, devastating cities, towns and villages and killing thousands, including many of those who had huddled in government shelters.

India might be better prepared in this case

"If you look at the official PAGASA bulletins leading up to the typhoon's arrival in the Philippines, you see that the storm surge alert is buried in a single sentence near the very bottom of a very long bulletin that mostly focuses on wind alerts," said Wiltgen. "They buried the lead. If we as weather communicators want people to get the message about storm surge, we can't bury the lead. It has to be a blaring, unmistakable headline."

A clear advantage india has over Philippines

Contrast this with Vietnam, which sees about a dozen typhoons per year and is similarly poor and densely populated. But a centralized, Communist Party-led government broadcasts clear messages that cannot be ignored by the provinces. Also, because of a clearly defined land mass, unlike the archipelago of the Philippines, it is easy to evacuate people deep inland and to higher ground.

[adi B]

death toll by now: 1744 ,estimated to be 10k RIP

[hhunaeh]

From the washington post, Why so many people died from Haiyan and past southeast Asia typhoons Major disaster averted: 5 reasons why cyclone Phailin not as bad as feared in India

[cowboysfan]

i cannot believe they would build storm shelters where the storm surge can affect it,maybe these islands are too tiny and flat.