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Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
111–120 of 153 posts
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#112I came from the capital. My family lives beside Laguna lake in Taguig. Whenever there's a storm my village gets flooded (mainly due to poor flood control) and everything becomes hard in terms of dealing with your daily business. Obviously nothing in comparison to what Haiyan did to Tacloban city, but the panic induced by the thunder, the cold feeling from the rain, plus the fear of losing a lot from the waters and lo…
What's worse is that these disasters have been happening regularly since 2009, when Typhoon Ketsana (known locally as Ondoy) struck the capital. What has the government done to really damage-proof the Philippines since? It was obvious right then that something like that would happen every year, and it did, yet there doesn't seem to be a concrete, long-term plan of action from the government.
Well, I was impressed to see they evacuated a large number of people this time, which hasn't always been the case. that doesn't sem like much but bear mind that the Philippines is a poor country, and second that it's essentially an archipelago made out of hundreds of small inhabited islands with fairly low average elevation (IIRC it's actually a few thousand islands, but not all of them are inhabited).
I'm not sure there's a whole lot you can do to 'damage proof' territory like this, other than simply abandoning outlying parts of it and hoping they act as a sea wall (and with a ~90m population, you also have the problem of where to put those people). Their options really are limited, especially in the face of record breaking weather events. Consider that if this storm had hit the Maldives it would almost certainly have wiped out the entire country, permanently.
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#113I still don't get why the US Navy hasn't put an LHD or equivalent amphibious group into the relief effort -- it would be a great humanitarian thing, plus a show of strength for one of our key Pacific allies after the "pivot to Asia" -- a pretty clear implication that if we can put a battalion ashore to help hours after a hurricane, we can do similar things during a conflict. Extra points due to the huge number of USN…
It does not make sense for the government/Navy to have disaster relief ships on high alert (like the Marines are for example). The cost of maintaining that high alert status is high and the money would be much better spent nearly providing a lot more (but a little less timely) aid and support. I am sure the Navy will help, just maybe not today or tomorrow.
Maybe not on high alert continuously, but with satellites now, they must have seen this hurricane coming for days if not weeks.
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#114Wow, that's an insane death toll. To put this in perspective, last year, another super typhoon, Pablo, killed close to 2000 I believe. The year before that another devastating typhoon, Sendong, killed something like 1200. The Philippines regularly gets hit with 20 typhoons each year and the typhoon season isn't over. Each of the above mentioned typhoons hit in December. This has to be among the deadliest in Philippin…
> Many of the people here live in bamboo / wooden structures which stand no chance against a strong typhoon.
Compounding that, these strong storms are extremely hard to defend against. When I heard that Hayian was a strong Class 5 hurricane equivalent, it sent a chill down my spine. Perspective: I recall a homeowner returning to a non-waterfront home after one of the "big" Class 4's that hit southern Florida. His house was nominally still standing. The roof was gone, nothing was left inside except stick-sized debris. The non-support walls, framing, even the plumbing had all been destroyed. The paint had been scoured off of the cinderblock exterior support walls.
It's difficult to get one's head around the power and destructive capability of these storms.
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#115I'll just leave this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzxTXk1JCFw To Americans: Is this even legit?
no
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#116Wow, that's an insane death toll. To put this in perspective, last year, another super typhoon, Pablo, killed close to 2000 I believe. The year before that another devastating typhoon, Sendong, killed something like 1200. The Philippines regularly gets hit with 20 typhoons each year and the typhoon season isn't over. Each of the above mentioned typhoons hit in December. This has to be among the deadliest in Philippin…
20 typhoons a year is a lot of typhoons! How did this land (through the course of history) ever become habitable? Or have the typhoons been increasing in frequency in the recent past?
Typhoons are usually not that bad, it just means a lot more rain in an already very rainy country. Traditionally it was dealt with stilt houses and so on. Today you would just deal with it by having houses elevated about 6m and your first floor being able to withstand flooding for the worse possible typhoons, which means a stone floor and a concrete house.
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It seems like there are two separate things needed -- overall increase in wealth creation, and better survivability of structures (or at least shelters) I've always had this theory that one at least partial explanation for the differing economic states of different cultures is ability to properly assess risks and prepare for them accordingly. If every years a typhoon is going to come along and wipe out % of your in…
If every years a typhoon is going to come along and wipe out % of your infrastructure putting the affected regions of the country back to square one yet again, coming up with a workable solution to that should be a super high priority. This is correct. Yet Miami is hit by a hurricane every seven years on average, and they don't manage to move the power lines underground, instead preferring to hang the wire above grou…
My understanding was that since Florida is essentially at sea level the water table was high enough that it would not be safe or practical to put electrical wires underground. Could be wrong though.
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#118I still don't get why the US Navy hasn't put an LHD or equivalent amphibious group into the relief effort -- it would be a great humanitarian thing, plus a show of strength for one of our key Pacific allies after the "pivot to Asia" -- a pretty clear implication that if we can put a battalion ashore to help hours after a hurricane, we can do similar things during a conflict. Extra points due to the huge number of USN…
Chances are, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (the USS Essex is an LHD 2) will be responding. One of the main missions of the 31st MEU is humanitarian aid in the event of natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region. Depending on where all the ships are and what they're currently doing, it shouldn't take too long for them to get there. I was on the 31st MEU back when the cyclones hit in Myanmar, and our response was very quick. Unfortunately, we sat off the coast of Myanmar for about two weeks waiting to help, but the government in Myanmar wouldn't allow us to.
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
If every years a typhoon is going to come along and wipe out % of your infrastructure putting the affected regions of the country back to square one yet again, coming up with a workable solution to that should be a super high priority. This is correct. Yet Miami is hit by a hurricane every seven years on average, and they don't manage to move the power lines underground, instead preferring to hang the wire above grou…
My understanding was that since Florida is essentially at sea level the water table was high enough that it would not be safe or practical to put electrical wires underground. Could be wrong though.
In Weston, FL, which was developed in the 1990 and really took off during the recent bubble the greater part of residential power lines are underground, and consequently they had little trouble after Wilma and Katrina. They are on the western edge of Miami-Palm Beach metro area, where the water table would be higher because of proximity to the Everglades.
I don't think this is an engineering problem. This is a political issue - it would be too difficult to find the money for the conversion, even more so, since in the US taxes are locally raised and spent. Try finding sufficient funds to get the work done in, say, Opa-Locka, or try to raise funds in Palmetto Bay to pay for Homestead.
Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
If every years a typhoon is going to come along and wipe out % of your infrastructure putting the affected regions of the country back to square one yet again, coming up with a workable solution to that should be a super high priority. This is correct. Yet Miami is hit by a hurricane every seven years on average, and they don't manage to move the power lines underground, instead preferring to hang the wire above grou…
My understanding was that since Florida is essentially at sea level the water table was high enough that it would not be safe or practical to put electrical wires underground. Could be wrong though.
Also it may well be that above ground lines and the higher damage/maintenance costs are still cheaper than acquiring easements and all the other costs of installing underground utility infrastructure.