Follow up on Typhoon Haiyan

Several days out now from Typhoon Haiyan striking the Philippines, the images and video beginning to flow from there are devastating.  I’ve been involved in weather and storm chasing for over 20 years and have only seen this type of devastation a handful of times coming from EF4 & 5 tornadoes.  Even then those areas are only blocks wide.  The Storm that struck was miles wide, with tornado like winds.  Inside the winds you also have swirling vortices of wind that would definitely been EF5 in strength.  Not only do you have that, but then you also had massive storm surge.  What did not blow away, washed away. The only thing I can compare this to in my memory was Hurricane Andrew that struck Florida in 1992.

 


The images we are seeing are pretty much from one city, Tacloban.  There are still many places where no one has gotten to yet because what little infrastructure there was has been completely destroyed, and the same for lines of communication as well.  These were impoverished rural areas with many weak structures. I’ve already heard reports of bodies lining the roadways just getting out of the city.


Relief has been slow to come, but at least there is a little trickling in as organizations and leaders coordinate the massive effort.  Survivors have been left to their own resources in many cases and looting has been reported.   Many of these people had a difficult time making it through a day anyway and had no preparations.  Even if you did have preparations, they might have blown or washed away, then got looted from amongst the rubble.  You do what you have to do to make it through another day.




Help is needed for the people of the Philippines.   Please give if you can.  The preferred way to assist is through cash donations (or bank card, etc).  Aid organizations know what is needed immediately and can put your donated money to good immediate use.  Donations of goods get messy and cluttered, often overwhelming.  On top of this, many people use this type of donating as an excuse to unload their unwanted junk.  There are often nefarious groups that try to take advantage by soliciting for donations, but will keep the money instead, so it is best to go through a known and trusted source.  Red Cross comes to mind, for example.

 

http://www.redcross.org

This is also a good time to try and remind people that they themselves need to have preparations made in case of a devastating disaster strikes your area.  No one anywhere in the world is immune from some sort of disaster.  Surviving a disaster is only part of it.  Surviving the aftermath is another task.  Take both seriously.

http://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit

(links are cut and paste, not hyperlinks)