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Friday, November 8, 2013
After battering the Phillipines Friday morning , Super typhoon Haiyan is set to enter the South China Sea Friday night - landfall in the central Vietnam appears likely for sunday afternoon. Vietnam and Laos should expect larger amounts , perhaps a foot or more of rain ......
( Keep Vietnam in your prayer as Typhoon Haiyan looms there .... )
November, 10 2013 20:48:00
Northern, central residents braced for Haiyan
HA NOI (VNS) — Residents of northern localities on November 10 were braced for heavy rains and flooding while those in coastal areas were asked to take shelter as super typhoon Haiyan moved towards the country after devastating the Philippines.
Rains and winds in Ha Long City, northern Quang Ninh Province, on Sunday's evening. — Photo Dang Ninh
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai and other Government officials toured the central province of Ha Tinh to inspect preparations for supper-typhoon Haiyan, which is forecast to make landfall in the country on November 10.
He urged the provincial authorities to promptly call for all fishermen to go ashore and evacuate residents living in coastal areas to safer places with enough food, fresh water and necessary commodities.
The direction of Haiyan typhoon is cited in the bulletin issued by the National Hydrometeorology Forecasting Centre at 5:30pm on November 10.
According to the National Hydrometeorology Forecasting Centre, as of 2 pm on November 10, typhoon Haiyan, which swept across the Philippines with about 10,000 people feared dead, was 270 km east of the central province of Quang Tri .
In the next 12 hours, the storm will move north-westward, speeding 30-35 km per hour, and reach north-eastern coast at 1 pm of November 11.
Residents in central and northern localities were braced for the typhoon, the 14 th to hit Vietnam this year.
In the northern province of Quang Ninh, about 1,000 households in Ha Long Bay and by the coast dykes have been evacuated to higher places.
A soldier calls for the fishmen to go ashore in Co To island, Quang Ninh province. — Photo Ninh Hang
Torrential rain and strong wind were forecast to strike the northern provinces from November 10-12 in the wake of typhoon Haiyan.
Rain started to fall in the capital city Hanoi . All soldiers and officials of the Capital High Command were ordered to remain on duty round-the-clock. Districts as well as agencies located in the city were requested to keep a close eye on the development of the storm to make prompt response.
In the northern port city of Hai Phong , the provincial Border Guard on November 10 called 2,089 vessels ashore safely.
Guidance and information on the course of the storm were sent to 4,100 other fishing vessels with nearly 12,000 fishermen aboard to help them quickly find refuge.
Residents in Cat Hai island are evacuated ashore safely. — Photo Hoang Thuy
Thousands of residents in low areas have been evacuated to safer places.
Efforts are being made to send 6,334 people living by the coast in Tien Hai and Thai Thuy district in northern Thai Binh province to higher ground.
Five deaths have been reported in the central provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Thua Thien Hue while preparing to escape the storm. — VNS
Pray for those living in the Philippines or who have friends and / or family there .....
TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - At least 10,000 people died in the central Philippine province of Leyte after Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, lashed the province, swallowing coastal towns, a senior police official said on Sunday.
About 70 to 80 percent of the area in the path of Haiyan in Leyte province was destroyed, said Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria.
"We had a meeting last night with the governor and the other officials. The governor said based on their estimate, 10,000 died," Soria told Reuters.
Supertyphoon Haiyan Leaves Over 1,200 Dead: The "Massive Destruction" In Photos And Videos
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/09/2013 13:46 -0500
As reported yesterday, Typhoon Haiyan - potentially the strongest storm to ever make landfall, and stronger than Katrina and Sandy combined - has come and left the Philippines (currently heading for Vietnam), and now the time has come to evaluate the damage and count the dead. Sadly, as Reuters reports, the devastation is absolutely massive and especially in the hardest hit city of Tacloban in the central Leyte province, may match the aftermath of the Fukushima tsunami: "This is destruction on a massive scale. There are cars thrown like tumbleweed and the streets are strewn with debris." Airport manager Efren Nagrama, 47, said water levels rose up to four metres (13 ft) in the airport. "It was like a tsunami. We escaped through the windows and I held on to a pole for about an hour as rain, seawater and wind swept through the airport. Some of my staff survived by clinging to trees. I prayed hard all throughout until the water subsided."
And it's not over yet: the following clip fromThe Weather Channel summarizes the current position and heading of the Typhoon....
But while the worst may be yet to come, for the Philippines it is bad enough as Reuters explains:
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 death toll 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 Cross, as water surges rushed through the city.
"An estimated more than 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban as reported by our Red Cross teams," she told Reuters. "In Samar, about 200 deaths. Validation is ongoing."
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 Philippines has yet to restore communications with officials in Tacloban, a city of about 220,000. A government official estimated at least 100 were killed and more than 100 wounded, but conceded the toll would likely rise sharply.
The airport was nearly destroyed as raging seawaters swept through the city, shattering the glass of the airport tower, levelling the terminal and overturning nearby vehicles.
"Almost all houses were destroyed, many are totally damaged. Only a few are left standing," said Major Rey Balido, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.
Local television network ABS-CBN showed images of looting in one of the city's biggest malls, with residents carting away everything from appliances to suitcases and grocery items.
Airport manager Efren Nagrama, 47, said water levels rose up to four metres (13 ft) in the airport.
"It was like a tsunami. We escaped through the windows and I held on to a pole for about an hour as rain, seawater and wind swept through the airport. Some of my staff survived by clinging to trees. I prayed hard all throughout until the water subsided."
Across the country, about a million people took shelter in 37 provinces after President Benigno Aquino appealed to those in the typhoon's path to leave vulnerable areas.
"For casualties, we think it will be substantially more," Aquino told reporters.
Houses are seen destroyed by the strong winds of Super Typhoon Haiyan in the city of Tacloban in Leyte province on Saturday.Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images
The Philippine Red Cross estimated Saturday that more than 1,000 people were killed in Tacloban, a coastal city of 200,000 people located about 360 miles southeast of the capital Manila, and that at least 200 people died in hard-hit Samar province a day after Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever to make landfall, slammed into the Philippines. The tropical cyclone wiped away buildings and leveled seaside homes with massive storm surges — some as high as 20 feet.
Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, told Reuters that the numbers came from preliminary reports by Red Cross teams in Tacloban and Samar, among the areas that were hit hardest by Haiyan on Friday.
"An estimated more than 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban as reported by our Red Cross teams," Pang said.
Pang said that validation of the numbers was still ongoing and that she expected a more exact number to emerge after a more precise counting of bodies on the ground in those regions.
While official numbers put the current death toll at 138 people, the government expects that figure to rise considerably, Al Jazeera's Craig Leeson reported Saturday from Manila.
"The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami," Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, head of the U.N. Disaster Assessment Coordination Team sent to Tacloban, said referring to the 2004 disaster that killed more than 200,000 people in Southeast Asia and the surrounding region.
"This is destruction on a massive scale. There are cars thrown like tumbleweed and the streets are strewn with debris," Stampa said.
Headed for Vietnam
Nearly 800,000 Filipinos were forced to flee their homes ahead of the storm, which weather officials said had sustained winds of 147 mph with gusts of 170 mph when it made landfall. By those measurements, Haiyan would be comparable to a strong Category 4 hurricane in the U.S. and nearly approaching a Category 5 hurricane.
The full extent of the damage caused by Haiyan became clearer Saturday after officials were able to fly across parts of the country. However, relief workers are still struggling to deliver food and aid with roads blocked by landslides and fallen trees. The devastation in parts of the country has also made it dangerous to land helicopters that could be used to deliver supplies, Leeson reported.
The typhoon's sustained winds weakened Saturday to 101 mph, with stronger gusts as it blew farther away from the Philippines across the South China Sea toward Vietnam, where it is expected to make landfall on Sunday.
Vietnamese authorities in four central provinces began evacuating more than 500,000 people from high risk areas to government buildings, schools and other concrete homes able to withstand strong winds. Residents have also been placing sand bags and tying down roofs ahead of the storm.
'Like the tsunami in Japan'
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the "United States stands ready to help" the Philippines deal with the devastation.
Bernd Schell with the International Federation of the Red Cross told Al Jazeera's Morgan Radford Saturday that the most urgent need for people on the ground at this point are basic essentials.
"We have to provide them with food and water," Schell said. "People are looking urgently for food and water, followed by shelter material."
U.S. Marine Col. Mike Wylie, who surveyed the damage in Tacloban prior to possible American assistance, told The Associated Press that the damage to the runway was significant. Military planes were still able to land with relief aid.
"The storm surge came in fairly high and there is significant structural damage and trees blown over," said Wylie, who is a member of the U.S.-Philippines Military Assistance Group based in Manila.
Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN showed fierce winds whipping buildings and vehicles as storm surges swamped Tacloban with debris-laden floodwaters.
In the aftermath, people were seen weeping while retrieving bodies of loved ones inside buildings and on a street that was littered with fallen trees, roofing material and other building parts torn off in the typhoon's fury. All that was left of one large building whose walls were smashed in were the skeletal remains of its rafters.
ABS-CBN television anchor Ted Failon, who was able to report only briefly Friday from Tacloban, said the storm surge was "like the tsunami in Japan."
An illustration of typhoon Haiyan's progress. The storm is set to enter the East Sea tonight. Photo courtesy of National Center for Hydro – Meteorological Forecasting
After battering the Philippines early Friday and leaving at least three dead, super typhoon Haiyan is set to enter the East Sea (also known as the South China Sea) tonight.
Bui Minh Tang, director of the National Center for Hydro – Meteorological Forecasting, said it will be the strongest storm that has hit Vietnam in the last ten years. A report released by the center at 5:30 p.m. said the typhoon was centered in the sea area east of central part of the Philippines at 4 p.m. The center forecast that the storm will move at a speed of 35 kilometers per hour in the next 24 hours and reach the East Sea tonight. It will center at a site 250 kilometers north-northeast of Song Tu Tay Island (or Southwest Cay) in the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago at 4 p.m. Saturday, it estimated. Haiyan is likely to make landfall with its eye in the central part of central Vietnam at 4 p.m. Sunday. The center estimates that sustained winds of 150-183 kilometers per hour are likely near the eye of the storm. Haiyan will go northwest along coastal central provinces and cities at a speed of 20 kilometers an hour in the next two to three days, the center predicted. Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and head of the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control, on Thursday ordered localities between Thanh Hoa and Binh Dinh provinces to take precautions against the coming storm. The steering committee also asked authorities from Thanh Hoa to the southernmost province of Ca Mau to keep themselves updated about the storm's status, and fishing boats to return to shore or leave dangerous areas before 7 p.m. today. The typhoon has made headlines in international newspapers these days, with many reports saying it is the world’s strongest typhoon this year, and one of the most powerful storms ever recorded. Bloomberg quoted the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center as saying that at 2 p.m. East Coast time that the typhoon had top winds of almost 315 kilometers per hour when it was about 489 miles southeast of the Philippines’ capital city of Manila. “If it maintains its strength, there has never been a storm this strong making landfall anywhere in the world,” Jeff Masters, founder of US-based Weather Underground told Bloomberg. It has already forced more than a million people to evacuate, cut electricity, communications, damaged houses and forced the cancellation of several ferry services, fishing expeditions and flights, as also the closure of schools, offices and shops, Reuters reported. Masters said the storm would also be “a huge problem” for Vietnam and Laos since as much as a foot of rain may fall in the countries in its wake.
If last year it was the East Coast's turn to suffer a freak super storm, this year it is the already battered Philippines, which suffered a 7.2 magnitude earthquake last month, turn as Super Typhoon Haiyan, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, slammed into the Philippines today after forcing thousands of people to evacuate. With sustained winds of 315 kph (195 mph) and gusts as strong as 380 kph (235 mph), Haiyan was probably the strongest tropical cyclone to hit land anywhere in the world in recorded history. "If it maintains its strength, there has never been a storm this strong making landfall anywhere in the world,” said Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “This is off the charts.” Not taking chances, the local government has ordered over 125,000 people from 22 provinces to evacuate.
But while luckily human lives will be saved, little else may be. As Bloomberg reports, "Haiyan may inundate rivers, create mudflows and cause storm surges as high as 6 meters (20 feet), Aquino said. Three air force cargo planes, 2 navy ships, helicopters and relief boats are on standby, the president said. About 78,000 families were evacuated in Albay province, Governor Joey Salceda said on his Facebook account. Masters said Tacloban, the capital of the Philippine province of Leyte, would take a direct hit and winds of at least 130 mph may sweep as far as 100 miles inland. “There isn’t much built on the Philippines that can withstand winds like that,” Masters said.
Moments ago Bloomberg just blasted that up to half of the island chain's sugar cane may be destroyed as a result of the Typhoon, which will wreak havoc on logistic and supply chains globally across numerous commodities. However, it is the human damange that is the biggest threat.
Heavy rains from storms usually cause the highest death tolls on the Philippines, Masters said. Flooding may not be the worst threat this time because Haiyan is moving fairly fast. The high winds and storm surge have the potential to cause catastrophic damage, he said.
“We’re swamped with calls for help,” Southern Leyte Governor Roger Mercado said in an interview over DZMM radio. Strong wings uprooted trees in the province, he said.
About 2,000 passengers, 50 vessels and 557 rolling cargoes are now stranded in various seaports, the disaster agency said today. Cebu Air Inc. (CEB), the nation’s largest budget carrier, canceled 122 domestic flights and 4 international flights from today to Nov. 9, it said yesterday. Philippine Airlines Inc., in its Facebook account, said 26 local flights and three international flights have been canceled today.
Putting the size of the storm in perspective: "Haiyan was so large in diameter that at one point, its clouds were affecting two-thirds of the country, which stretches more than 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles). Tropical-storm-force winds extended 240 kilometers from the typhoon's center.
The wide angle shot below by EUMETSAT shows just how massive the typhoon truly is:
In short a record superstorm:
The true power of Haiyan isn’t known because reconnaissance planes haven’t flown into it, Masters said. The strongest tropical cyclone on record was Super Typhoon Nancy in 1961 with top winds of 215 mph. He said many believe the estimated wind speeds of storms between the 1940s to 1960s was too high.
Since 1969, only three storms have been as powerful as Haiyan, Masters wrote on his blog. They were Super Typhoon Tip in 1979 in the Pacific and Atlantic hurricanes Camille in 1969 and Allen in 1980.
The strongest storm to hit land was Camille, which went ashore in Mississippi with winds near 195 mph, Master said. While there are some estimates that Camille’s winds were closer to 200 mph, the exact speed is unknown because the instruments were destroyed, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
This is just the beginning. After it is done with the Philippines, Haiyan is expected to strike Vietnam in several days, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency. “It is going to be a huge problem for Vietnam and Laos,”Masters said. As much as a foot of rain may fall there, he said.
If there is a silver lining to all the imminent destruction and tragedy, it is that Q4 GDP in the region will be off the charts. Just as Krugman.
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/09/2013 13:46 -0500
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.
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