10,000 estimated dead in wake of history’s strongest storm
“Haiyan is the worst storm ever to make landfall in recorded history,” said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for Weather Underground.
With sustained winds of more than 190 mph, gusts of up to 235 mph and seawater surge of 23 feet, Haiyan edges out Mississippi’s Hurricane Camille of 1969 for most powerful storm.
As monstrous as it was, last year’s Hurricane Sandy — which battered New York City with winds as high as 90 mph and a storm surge of just under 14 feet — pales in comparison.
“Sandy was nothing compared to Haiyan, that’s for sure,” Masters said.
Massive storm winds must be estimated via satellite, he noted.
“It’s really hard to measure directly the top winds of a hurricane because they destroy any equipment that gets in its way,” he said.
Haiyan was being downgraded to a Category 4 storm as it spun across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.
Meteorologists are scratching their heads over why Haiyan grew to be so ferocious. There was no obvious convergence of prime weather conditions, Masters noted.
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“Ocean temperatures were average,” he said. “And it’s November, so they’ve actually cooled off from their peak in October.
A house is engulfed by the storm surge brought about by powerful typhoon Haiyan that hit Legazpi
“The upper-level winds — high-altitude winds — were favorable but not exceptionally so,” he added. “So, I’m at a loss for explaining what made this explode.”
Many packed evacuation centers collapsed in Tacloban as the typhoon raged, according to police officials there.
“The water was as high as a coconut tree,” said 44-year-old Sandy Torotoro, a bicycle-taxi driver in the wreckage-strewn city.
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Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla late Saturday and told that the death toll on the island, could surpass 10,000, with the vast majority caused by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor’s figure was based on reports from village officials in areas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed Friday.
Girls ride on bicycles as they are splashed with water from strong waves in a coastal village as Typhoon Haiyan battered Bayog town in Los Banos, Laguna, south of Manila November 8, 2013.
Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city alone “could go up to 10,000.”
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About 300 to 400 bodies have already been recovered, Lim said.
An aerial shot shows devastation in the aftermath in the aftermath of Supper Typhoon Haiyan that smashed into coastal communities on the central Philippines in Iloilo.
The typhoon barreled through six central Philippine islands on Friday, wiping away buildings and leveling seaside homes. Most of the deaths and destruction were on Leyte Island, where Tacloban is located.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that America “stands ready to help.”
“I know that these horrific acts of nature are a burden that you have wrestled with and courageously surmounted before,” he said in a statement to the Philippine people.
“Your spirit is strong.”
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Survivors assess the damage after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city, central Philippines November 9, 2013.
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Debris litter a damaged airport after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city in central Philippines November 9, 2013.
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