Victims beg for food after deadly Philippine typhoon

Victims beg for food after deadly Philippine typhoon

Desperate families begged for food Sunday, days after a typhoon brought death and destruction to parts of a southern Philippine island, as the storm returned to the north of the country.
Northern areas escaped with heavy rain after the storm weakened. But scenes of hardship were everywhere in southern areas that last week felt the full fury of the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year.
Officials said 548 people are confirmed dead, most of them in the southern island of Mindanao.
Civil defence chief Benito Ramos said the number of missing had shot up to 827 from previous figures of 500 unaccounted for, after reports of more missing fishermen came in.

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Typhoon and earthquakes devastate Asia

In Asia, Typhoon Morakot has caused widespread destruction in several countries.
The typhoon dumped as much as 80 inches of rain in parts of Taiwan, where 400 or more people were reported buried and are unaccounted for after a mudslide in one village Sunday morning. In China, hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses collapsed. Almost one million people were evacuated. In the Phillippines, the storm killed at least 22 people over the weekend.
Meanwhile, The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch for five countries after a massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit the Indian Ocean, though the warning was later lifted.

A strong earthquake rocked central Japan on Tuesday, injuring more than 100 people, triggering a landslide and shutting down a nuclear power plant and bullet trains. The magnitude 6.4 tremor shook buildings, threw objects from shelves and jolted people from their sleep in and around Tokyo.  See Video.

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598 dead or missing in typhoon

Philippines
Image: This image provided by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Fengshen taken Thursday, June 19, 2008 located southeast of the Philippines.

Story: 598 people are dead or missing after Typhoon Fengshen roared through the Philippines, the Red Cross and civil defence said today, dramatically raising the number unaccounted for. Landslides, severe flooding and the loss of dozens of fishing boats had left at least 224 dead and 374 missing, mostly in central areas which bore the brunt of the storm. The figures do not include passengers and crew from a ferry which sank carrying more than 800 people. So far, only 32 survivors have been found. More than 200 people were still missing in the central island of Negros, while 63,000 people are still in evacuation centres after flash floods and landslides forced them to flee their homes. Flooding had not yet receded in many parts of Bulacan province, just outside the capital of Manila. Power was restored in Manila but had not yet returned in some areas outside the capital where lines had been toppled. Typhoon Fengshen slammed into the central Philippines late on Saturday before changing course and moving north across much of the archipelago. It left through the northwest side of the main island of Luzon before dawn today, moving northwest at 15km/h towards southern China. As of 10am (midday AEST) today, the typhoon was charted 300km northwest of the country, packing maximum winds of 110km/h near the centre.

RELATED NEWS
Hopes faded today that more survivors would be found in what could be one of the worst Philippine sea disasters as rescuers failed to find signs of life inside the capsized ferry. Rescue officials said only 38 people had been rescued, including 28 passengers and crew members who came ashore today after drifting at sea since Saturday. A total of 13 bodies believed to be from the ferry Princess of the Stars have been recovered, including 9 that washed ashore today. Divers who beat against the hull of ferry Monday in search of survivors heard nothing that indicated life. Elsewhere, officials tried to assess the losses from the typhoon. Iloilo, a central Philippine province, was the worst hit, with fatalities approaching 100 as of today. It was too early to determine damage to agriculture and infrastructure, but officials said it could run up to millions of dollars. Another concern was the welfare of the nearly 70,000 people throughout the country who were displaced by the typhoon and are now living in evacuation centers. Coast guard officials said that they had cleared the ferry to leave Manila for Cebu, a city in the central Philippines, on Friday night because the initial forecast for Fengshen showed that the storm would only hit the eastern part of the country, away from the ferry's route. But the typhoon changed direction Saturday, moving toward the center of the country, running right into the ferry's path. Coast guard officials said they had advised the ferry to seek shelter, but that the boat's engine had failed after the ship was battered by strong winds and waves, thus leaving it even more vulnerable to the intensifying storm. Image Above: Rescue divers in the Philippines gathering Tuesday near the ferry Princess of the Stars, which was overturned by a typhoon Saturday.

(Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

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Early typhoon hits

Click Image Above for PDF Story

China
In Macau, at 1.30pm the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau raised the warning signal from 3 to 8, which prompted a surge of phone calls which appeared to temporarily bring down the mobile phone network. Coming two months before the official start of the season, it was the EARLIEST TYPHOON WARNING THE BUREAU HAD ISSUED IN AT LEAST 40 YEARS. Cranes swayed, trees were uprooted and scaffolding damaged in the following five hours of gale force winds which reached up to 109 kilometres an hour. Waters rose and waves battered the coast while the bridges connecting Taipa with the peninsula were closed at 3pm. The La Niña effect was blamed for the early typhoon and history shows the periodic cooling of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific is likely to bring about more typhoons in the coming months.

RELATED NEWS
Massive mudslide traps 200 in Three Gorges area - Emergency workers are trying to rescue almost 200 people from a village that was almost inundated by a massive landslide in central China on Saturday. Continuous rain triggered a landslide of 60,000 cubic meters of mud, which swept into a schoolyard and a village of 37 homes at the Three Gorges Dam area in Hubei Province on Saturday afternoon. The rain had washed away 20,000 cubic meters of the mud in Xiaohe Village of Gaoyang Township. The mud flow still threatens to inundate a school building and the homes of 179 people in the village. Rainstorms have slammed the geographically vulnerable reservoir area since Friday. Up to 106 millimeters of rain have fallen so far. Weather forecasters say the rain would continue in coming days, which would continue to swell exuding underground water at the landslide site. The disaster relief staff expect that the landslide area will worsen due to the bad weather. Gaoyang is to be the last town to be relocated to make way for the raising of the reservoir level to 175 meters in 2009 from the current level of 156 meters. A total of 2,000 villagers are expected to be relocated.

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Six dead in typhoon and landslide

Indonesian Archipelago
Typhoon Nicholas has ravaged East Nusa Tenggara the past few days, killing two residents of Kupang and one resident of West Sumba, and destroying hundreds of houses and public facilities in the region. The three victims drowned after being dragged out to sea by heavy waves Wednesday. Friday people panicked and rushed from their homes as the typhoon swept through the area. "Some 300 people who had their homes damaged are still staying in makeshift tents and public facilities." The storm blowing 70 kilometers per hour also damaged hundreds of homes in Rote Ndao and Ende regencies. Heavy rains triggered flash flooding in Ende, Flores Island, submerging hundreds of homes and demolishing four bridges. Some 200 Ende residents were still living in tents. Head of the Kupang Meteorology and Geophysics Agency warned fishermen and inter-island ferries of high tides caused by the typhoon, saying all water activities should be halted until the strong winds ceased. "Tidal waves could occur in all waters of the province. This situation is very dangerous for any marine activities, and that's why we are encouraging people to stay put until the bad weather is over." In Kudus, Central Java, a mother and her child were killed in a landslide early Friday morning. A mass of earth from a cliff on Mount Muria fell onto homes. Local residents said rains had been incessant the past several days, and a number of minor slides had occurred. A large section of the mountain slope in the area is bare of trees because residents had converted the forests into farmland. The condition of the slope on Mount Muria is nearly the same as that of Tawangmangu, in Karanganyar, where a landslide in December last year killed 64 people. Rains have fallen on the north coast of Java from Kendal to Pati since the first week of February. Floods have swamped hundreds of hectares of rice crops in Kudus, Jepara and Pati. Hundreds of homes were also ravaged by floods, mostly due to overflowing rivers.

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Death toll from Philippines typhoon rises to 17

Breaking Storm News
Philippines
Image: A street in the northern city of Ilagan is submerged under floodwaters

MANILA (AFP) — The death toll from Typhoon Mitag rose to 17 in the Philippines, officials said Tuesday, as search operations continued for a missing air force jet and a fishing vessel with 27 people aboard.

The typhoon killed 17 people and left four others missing, the civil defence office said.

The number of people displaced also jumped to 540,000 across 19 provinces ravaged by flash floods and landslides triggered by the typhoon.

Mitag has weakened as it exited the Philippines towards the southern islands of Japan.

Tropical storm Hagibis meanwhile weakened to tropical depression status as it crossed Mindoro island towards southern Luzon in the afternoon, while a second tropical depression with similar 55 kilometre (34 mile) per hour winds threatened from the Pacific Ocean.

Hagibis killed 13 people last week in its initial pass over the Philippines.

It reversed course Monday, sinking a fishing boat near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, leaving 27 Filipino crewmen missing, officials said.

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Typhoon Mina pounds Isabela

Breaking Storm News
Philippines
Image: TYPHOON MINA: Satellite image of ‘Mina’ (international codename: Mitag) as of 5am, Monday. Photo from PAGASA

Typhoon Mina (international codename Mitag) accelerated and made landfall over Palanan, Isabela late Sunday night and is threatening other provinces in Northern Luzon. The typhoon also threatened Northern and Central Luzon, particularly the Cagayan Valley region. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13 kms per hour with sustained winds of 160 kph and gustiness of up to 195 kph. Mina was expected to cross extreme Northern Luzon Sunday night into this morning. It was forecast to be 140 kms northwest of Aparri, Cagayan tonight. PAGASA forecast the typhoon to be 200 kms northwest of Aparri Tuesday evening. The typhoon is expected to be 110 kms north of Basco by Wednesday. Another weather disturbance threatened to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility Sunday even before typhoon Mina made landfall over Northern and Central Luzon. The weather disturbance was named Nonoy and is expected to be within the PAR in three to four days. Nonoy might join with typhoon Lando (international codename Hagibis) before it exits via the Philippine Sea toward Japan. Lando, meanwhile, is expected to re-enter the country and hit Palawan on Tuesday. Lando's movement is being affected by Mina's due to the Fujiwhara effect. The Fujiwhara effect is brought about by the interaction between two tropical cyclones at an appreciable distance, usually when two storm formations are within 15 degrees of each other. "We will evacuate those at risk from storm surges and flash floods. These typhoons are moving slow. They will be dumping a lot of rain."

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China reels after Typhoon Krosa

China
Some five million people have been affected by a powerful storm that hit China's south-east coast, destroying houses and causing widespread flooding.

More than 1.4 million people were evacuated ahead of Typhoon Krosa, which struck Zhejiang and Fujian provinces on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

No deaths were reported and it was later downgraded to a tropical storm.

In Vietnam, meanwhile, the toll from Typhoon Lekima, which struck last week, rose to at least 55, officials said.

Hardest hit were the provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, south of the capital, Hanoi.

Hundreds of thousands of homes were said to be under water, and a Red Cross official described the situation as "very acute".

Several bombs from the Vietnam War era that were exposed by landslides have been defused by military engineers, local media reported.

RELATED NEWS

51 killed in worst floods in Vietnam in 45 years
HANOI, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Fifty-one people were killed and 14 others went missing since the most severe floods in Vietnam over the past 45 years started hitting the country's northern and central regions on Oct. 4, Vietnam News Agency reported Monday.

In the flooding triggered by torrential rain, central Nghe An province suffered biggest human loss with 22 deaths and three missing, followed by northern Hoa Binh province with nine deaths and three missing, and northern Son La province with seven deaths and three missing, the agency quoted the country's Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention as reporting.

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Storm drenches China with heavy rains

Breaking Storm News
Image: Strong waves hit the coastal areas of Dongtou, eastern China's Zhejiang Province, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007. Authorities in coastal Chinese provinces cleared tourist sites and ordered officials back to work on Saturday to prepare for the approach of Typhoon Krosa. (AP Photo/EyePress)


BEIJING - A storm drenched China's southeast on Sunday after killing five people on Taiwan and prompting the evacuation of 1.4 million people on the mainland, officials said. In Vietnam, the death toll from a separate storm rose to 55.


More than 1.4 million people were evacuated from coastal areas, including more than 500,000 tourists who were at beach resorts for the National Day holiday week, Xinhua said.


Krosa — the Cambodian word for crane — killed five people Saturday on Taiwan as it knocked out power to 2 million homes and soaked the island, according to Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center.

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Taiwan braces for typhoon Krosa

BREAKING STORM NEWS
TAIWAN
Typhoon Warning
Image: Waves smash against the northern coast near Keelung

TAIPEI (AFP) — Authorities in southern Taiwan shuttered schools, suspended ferry services and cancelled outdoor events as the island braced Friday for Typhoon Krosa, expected to hit over the weekend.

Offices and schools on Orchid Island, off Taiwan's coast, were closed, while ferries linking Taiwan and several offshore islands were cancelled.

With a radius of 300 kilometres (186 miles), Krosa, meaning crane in the Khmer language, was 440 kilometres east-southeast of Oluanpi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, at 1:15 pm (0515 GMT), the central weather bureau said.

Packing winds gusting up to 184 kilometres per hour, it was moving northwest at a speed of 14 kilometres an hour.

The weather bureau estimated Krosa's impact would be strongest between late Saturday and early Sunday. It could dump up to 1,100 millimetres (44 inches) of rain in northern and eastern mountain regions.

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Super Typhoon Krosa Grows Into Category 4 Hurricane

Still Hundreds of Miles from China, Storm Will First Bring Heavy Rain to Philippines and Taiwan
Typhoon Alert

Typhoon Krosa underwent a rapid intensification today, as it grew from a Category 1 hurricane into a Category 4 major storm, or super typhoon, in a matter of hours.

The storm packs 138 mph winds, and is headed on a track that would take it north of the Philippines, over the norther portion of Taiwan and on to China in the next several days.

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Typhoon Lekima Pounds Vietnam

Breaking Storm News
Vietnam
The storm made landfall late last night in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces of Vietnam. It destroyed or damaged more than 29,000 homes in Quang Binh province, where 33 people were injured by falling trees or flying debris, according to disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Dien.

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Vietnam begins evacuations as typhoon nears

BREAKING STORM NEWS
VIETNAM

HANOI--Vietnam began evacuating 200,000 people along its central coast on Wednesday and put troops on standby as typhoon Lekima surged toward the Southeast Asian country, officials said.

The typhoon was expected to make landfall late Wednesday, possibly packing maximum sustained winds of 117 kilometers (72 miles) an hour, Vietnamese weather forecasters said.

"Priorities have been given to old people, women and children. We bring them to public places or to their relatives and friends' houses away from the coast," said Nguyen Truong Son of the flood and storm control committee of Nghe An province.

About 40,000 army troops were put on high alert to help with the evacuation and the aftermath, according to the Thanh Nien or Young People daily newspaper.

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Chinese Link Typhoon Wipha to Climate Change

Mara Hvistendahl
September 24, 2007 10:17 AM

Typhoon Wipha marked a turning point in the perception of extreme weather events.

The past year has seen several milestones in government acknowledgement of the effects of climate change. In April, China released a report on the effects of climate change [PDF], forecasting an increase in droughts, floods and desertification, and a decline in agricultural output. And at a press conference in August, China Meteorological Administration official Song Lianchun connected this summer's increase in floods, droughts and heat waves to climate change.

Last Tuesday, as Wipha neared Shanghai, People Online (the People's Daily website) and China Meteorology Times co-produced a video in which Central Weather Station deputy director Bi Baogui echoes the connections made by Song. A transcript is here.) Here's a rough translation of key parts:

Host: Can you tell us a little bit about what's special about the typhoons that have touched down in our country in September?

Bi Baogui: The overall characteristics of this year's typhoons -- up to now, there have been 13 typhoons. Looking at the entire year, on the whole the number of typhoons is relatively low. But...these typhoons have been very active. To look at the influential typhoons, there have been four that have affected our country, either by passing through Japan or by touching down in our country. It should be said, going into September, that overall typhoon intensity has been extraordinarily strong....From June of this year until now, overall [atmospheric] circulation has in fact been abnormal. For example, this year the Huai River rose to cataclysmic levels not seen since 1954. When that was over, on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, Chongqing, which last year experienced drought, saw the biggest floods in years...Overall, this year's weather has been extraordinarily abnormal....

Host: You're an expert. What do you think is causing this sort of serious climate change?

Bi Baogi: It should be said that this sort of big change in events, first of all it has intrinsic causes. At the same time, we can't rule out external factors. Global temperatures are rising -- since 1849, overall temperatures have steadily increased. And after temperatures increase, to give an example: if you drop a tea egg in cold water, it won't get hard. It only gets hard when you put it in boiling water. To use this example, after surface temperature increases, it's possible that instability rises -- and as instability rises, the probability that this sort of extreme weather event will occur goes up.

In other words, while it's difficult now to link every single climate change to a specific event, if you look at it from the macro level, as overall temperatures rise, instability increases, and this sort of extreme weather event increases, causing changes in atmospheric circulation.

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Update: Typhoon Wipha kills 7 as it pounds eastern China

S.E. Asia
Photo: Tibetan monks walk against strong wind Wednesday in Shanghai.
(Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press)

Typhoon Wipha weakened as it continued to sweep through eastern China early Thursday, but not before killing at least seven, destroying thousands of homes and causing landslides.
The storm had been classified as a typhoon since Monday, with winds reaching 365 kilometres per hour.
An estimated 7,000 homes were flattened, fields covering about 40,500 hectares were flooded and an estimated six million people have been displaced, said the CBC's Anthony Germain, reporting from the region.
Continue Story

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Typhoon Wipha hits China

Photo: Paramilitary policemen patrol as waves crash against dikes at Dongtou, an island off the coast of Zhejiang province September 18, 2007, when Typhoon Wipha approached. Typhoon Wipha abruptly lost strength after it crossed the eastern coast of China on Wednesday and looked set to miss Shanghai as it headed north.

Typhoon Wipha packing winds of 45 meters per second has slammed into Cangnan County, Wenzhou of east China's Zhejiang Province.

Earlier, fears the typhoon would hit Shanghai had triggered mass evacuations and disrupted the women's World Cup, state media said.

Typhoon Wipha made landfall at 2:30 am local time (1830 GMT Tuesday) in Zhejiang province, where more than 1.8 million people had evacuated their homes.

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East China on high alert as Super Typhoon Wipha approaches

BREAKING STORM NEWS

Southeast Asia

The region is on high alert as Typhoon Wipha, now classed as severe, approaches its coastal areas. Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian are preparing to face its full brunt.

The national meteorological observatory is warning the typhoon could cause the worst damage in recent years. Wipha upgraded from a regular typhoon on Monday afternoon. At 6 pm, its center was located about 750 kilometers southeast of Taizhou in Zhejiang Province. Wipha is heading northwest at a speed of 20 kilometers an hour, packing winds of nearly 200 kilometers an hour.

The provincial flood control headquarters believe Wipha could develop into a super typhoon and is very likely to hit the southern areas between Cangnan and Xiangshan on the Zhejiang coast late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

A warning has been issued to the public and local authorities to prepare to recall vessels, relocate residents, patrol reservoirs and brace for geological disasters.

SUPER TYPHOON ALERT
Typhoon Wipha has taken aim at Shanghai forcing Chinese authorities to evacuate thousands of people from the country's financial hub. The Typhoon is currently targeting north of Taiwan where all offices and major business establishments remained closed.

Forecasters said Wipha had gathered strength over the last 24 hours with wind speeds reaching 200 kilometers per hour. It was expected that the typhoon would bring heavy rains on Tuesday.

Typhoon warnings have been issued for Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Authorities said around 200,000 people were being evacuated from low-lying areas in Shanghai.


WIPHA PUMMELS TAIWAN

THIRTY SIX (36) FOOT TIDAL SURGE REPORTED

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Typhoon Wipha, with wind gusts up to 185 mph (298 kph), forced schools and businesses in Taiwan to close Tuesday as it churned toward the central Chinese coast.

At least 200,000 people -- mostly migrant workers -- were being moved into movie theaters, arenas and other public buildings in Shanghai ahead of the typhoon's arrival, which is expected Wednesday morning, according to Shanghai Flood Control spokesman Zhang Zhenyu.

Wipha was centered about 70 miles (112 kilometers) east-southeast of Taipei, Taiwan, as of 3 p.m. Japan Standard Time Tuesday (2 a.m. ET), and was moving toward the west-northwest at 17 mph (27 kph), according to the advisory from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It had sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) and 36-foot (11-meter) ocean waves.

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Typhoon Wipha Grows Into Category 4 Storm

Interactive Map: Click Image Above learn more about the intense hurricanes of 2007

Breaking Storm News
Southeast Asia
Thirteen(13) Category 4 or 5 storms recorded so far this year around the Globe

Typhoon Wipha has grown into a Category 4 hurricane, with winds clocking at upwards of 138 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

According to a hurricane track on Weather Underground, it appears that the storm will strike close to Shanghai Wednesday, and near the border of North and South Korea Thursday.

There have been 13 Category 4 or Category 5 storms recorded this year around the world. The number of strong storms could be significant if controversial predictions about global warming prove correct. Increased ocean temperatures could make storms stronger, leading to an overall increase in the number of the strongest storms.

Here is a list of the storms. Click the map located above for more information about each.

• Cyclone Dora: Category 4
• Cyclone Favio: Category 4
• Cyclone Indlala: Category 4
• Cyclone Gonu: Category 5
• Typhoon Yutu: Category 4
• Super Typhoon Man-Yi: Category 4
• Typhoon Usagi: Category 4
• Super Typhoon Sepat: Category 5
• Hurricane Flossie: Category 4
• Hurricane Dean: Category 5
• Hurricane Felix: Category 5
• Typhoon Nari: Category 4
• Typhoon Wipha: Category 4

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Typhoon Nari Slams South Korea

Photo: Typhoon Nari is seen in a satellite image released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on September 16, 2007. REUTERS/NOAA/Handout

Breaking Storm News
South Korea
SEOUL, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Six South Koreans died and four were missing in South Korea on Sunday after a typhoon hit the country's southern coast, an official from the government emergency agency said.

He said the death toll may rise and South Korea's Yonhap news agency was already reporting 10 people confirmed dead and six reported missing because of the typhoon.

Local television stations were showing images of overturned trucks and uprooted trees in areas hit by the typhoon.

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Typhoon Fitow Wreaks Havoc In Japan

Japan

(RTTNews) - One of the most powerful typhoons to hit Japan in recent memory has brought Tokyo to a standstill as Typhoon Fitow continued to cut a path of chaos across the western Pacific Ocean.

Fitow made landfall in the Kanagawa prefecture, just south of the capital, shortly before 2:30 a.m. Friday local time. It then shifted north and through Tokyo, creating downpours and violent winds.

Accompanied by winds clocked at 85 miles per hour, the storm has toppled trees, scattered branches and caused power outages as it moved across the regionl. More than 8 inches of rain have fallen on Yokota since Tuesday night, including some precipitation from before Fitow's arrival, causing rivers to swell and overflow. Local media reports say dozens of people have been injured.

Fitow has thoroughly disrupted airline and train service. Nippon Airways canceled all flights between Tokyo's Haneda airport and airports in the Izu island chain in the Pacific. Also, the Central Japan Railway Company has temporarily halted runs on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line between Shin-Fuji and Kakegawa stations in Shizuoka Prefecture.

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