What causes typhoons in the Philippines? Is it because of global warming and climate change?

 

Holly Benedicto

Bisaya. Has travelled all over the Philippines, some Asian countries and the United States. Scientific background. Has worked extensively with Americans.

The Philippines is next to the Pacific Ocean where the typhoons are formed.

Typhoons have always been a problem in the Philippines and other countries like Japan that are near the vast Pacific.

Every year, without fail, during the months of June to December, we are plagued with monsoons, typhoons and rain, while we get super hot temperatures and little rain from January to May.

The flooding you see could be from climate change but many areas ALWAYS get flooded, especially those that are low-lying.

This is to be expected on a yearly basis like clockwork…and yet, many are still caught unawares. I wish I knew of a study that explored disaster preparedness across the Philippines so I can give you stats but all I have is opinion: while government agencies like the Philippine Coast Guarda and the Philippine Red Cross are prepared to help in times of disasters, the average Filipino is NOT.

Definitely something we need to be thinking about.

Philippines to Simplify Weather Warnings to Reduce Loss of Lives

The Philippines will simplify its weather warnings to make them easier to understand in order to prevent the annual loss of hundreds of lives from natural calamities, officials said Wednesday.

The state weather service of one of the world’s most disaster-prone nations is working with linguists to ensure that the threat posed by typhoons, floods and other events would be fully understood by people, they said.

“People need to be told in a language they can understand the dangers that they face,” said Roberto Añonuevo, executive director of the government’s Filipino Language Commission.

“Typhoons and storms are a common occurrence, so they become complacent. This will help them to respond. This is potentially life-saving,” he told AFP.

Giant walls of seawater, called “storm surges” generated by Haiyan, the strongest ever typhoon to hit land, were blamed for most of the 7,350 lives lost in the central Philippines a year ago.

Even though the hardest-hit areas were warned beforehand, the weather service and other officials later admitted that the victims were unfamiliar with the term “storm surge”, which they said failed to adequately convey the deadly threat.

President Benigno S. C. Aquino III has been among the weather service’s most severe critics, often lecturing its forecasters publicly to use layman’s terms in its bulletins.

About 20 typhoons and storms hit the country each year, triggering floods and landslides that kill hundreds.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are also an ever-present threat in the Asian archipelago that forms part of a “Ring of Fire” of Pacific islands formed by volcanic activity.

“People with lower levels of education at times have trouble understanding technical terms,” conceded Lani Aquino, a public relations officer for the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration.

“So what happens is they do not make the necessary precautions for certain meteorological events,” Ms. Aquino, no relation to the President, told AFP.

The weather service spokeswoman said it was reviewing a 300-word glossary of more easily understood weather terms prepared by the language commission, including the words for storm surges in the country’s major dialects. -- AFP

Another Natural Disaster in The Philippines

Storm clouds hover above Mt. Isarog in Camarines Sur on Monday, a day before tropical storm Glenda was expected to make landfall in Bicol region. Photo by Juan Escandor, Inquirer Southern Luzon

Eight years after Super Typhoon “Reming” killed about 1,000 people in a destructive strike across Bicol and nearby provinces, Bicolanos on Monday braced for another howler called “Glenda.”

Typhoon Glenda is expected to make landfall on Tuesday anywhere on the eastern seaboard of Sorsogon, Albay, Catanduanes and the two Camarines provinces, as Metro Manila itself came under alert for rains and strong winds that may hit the capital early on Wednesday.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour near the center, Glenda—estimated to be 470 kilometers east of Virac, Catanduanes—on Monday intensified as it churned westward threatening Bicol, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said on its website.

Reming was the last major weather disturbance to hit Bicol with winds of more than 200 kph, according to typhoon specialist Michael Padua, senior typhoon specialist of the global private weather company MeteoGroup.

Strangely, Glenda would occur on the same dates when Typhoon “Bebeng” wreaked havoc in Camarines Sur in July 1983, Padua said.

He said that based on four models from international weather organizations, Glenda would make landfall somewhere between Catanduanes and Caramoan (in Camarines Sur) or down on the eastern part of Sorsogon. 

Typhoon path predicted
 

MeteoGroup is a private group supported by the Aboitiz Group of companies with a goal of setting up 1,000 automated weather stations around the country to provide weather information to companies, local government units and residents. 

Padua was recognized for correctly predicting the path of Typhoon “Unding” in 2004 that directly hit Naga City. 

He uses four typhoon models—the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (WRS), Global Forecast System (GFS), Navy Global Environmental Model (Navgem), all based in the United States, and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts—in making his forecasts. 

Padua said all the four models showed that Glenda would make landfall in Bicol with some variations on the exact site. 

28-31 kph
 

Glenda may move slightly south and hit Sorsogon or Albay but if it maintains its track, Catanduanes and the two Camarines provinces would be hit, he said.

Using satellite data, Padua said Glenda was expected to be close to Catanduanes and the Maqueda Channel early on Tuesday morning and make landfall on Tuesday afternoon. 

He said Glenda was fast moving at 28-31 kph with a rain diameter of about 500 km, wind diameter of 390 km and maximum gustiness of 120 kph.

“My forecast [for] Tuesday is that the wind could have sustained gustiness of 130-140 kph which could reach to 150-160 kph,”Padua said.

“It could damage plantation areas and weak structures [and be] classified as Category 1, compared to Super Typhoon Yolanda, which was classified as Category 4,”he said. 

Storm surge
 
Padua said flooding was expected in low-lying areas and that the storm surge could reach up to 1 meter in height, compared to Yolanda, which reached 5 m.

Classes have been suspended in the Bicol Region while hundreds of passengers have been stranded as relief officials prepared to evacuate residents in flood- and landslide-prone areas.

The Virac Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (MDRRMC), headed by Capt. Ivanhoe Arcilla, said officials assumed Glenda would make a direct hit on the town and warnings had been sent to coastal areas to prevent fishermen from venturing out to sea.
Virac Vice Mayor Roy Laynes said the MDRRMC had authorized the procurement of 100 bags of rice from the National Food Authority (NFA), as well as noodles and canned goods from a supermarket.
In Bicol ports, some 820 passengers were stranded on Monday in Tabaco City in Albay, Bulan and Matnog towns in Sorsogon and Cataingan in Masbate.

In Albay, classes were suspended at all levels as were classes in Camarines Sur and Naga City.

Pangasinan at risk
 

In Pangasinan province, officials said Glenda might cross the province on Wednesday on its way to the West Philippine Sea.

Melchito Castro, Ilocos regional director of the Office of Civil Defense, said everyone must be alert, especially those living in coastal areas and near river banks.

“Eastern Pangasinan towns are also at risk because the typhoon is coming from that direction. It can cause landslides and flash floods,” Castro said.

“We should not be complacent because we do not know yet how much water Glenda will be dumping into the province,” Castro said.

Avenix Arenas, spokesperson of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the provincial government was ready to carry out any evacuation.

In Aurora province, Gov. Gerardo Noveras convened relief officials to prepare for any emergency. 

Food assistance
 

In Manila, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has prepared food and nonfood assistance to augment resources of local government units.

The DSWD said its field offices in Northern and Central Luzon had prepositioned 78,608 family food packs for immediate distribution to local government units.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the field offices had 209,875 assorted food items and 101,326 nonfood items. 

“Social welfare and development teams at the municipal level are now on the field to monitor the extent of the typhoon,” Soliman said. 

Blue alert 
 

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has issued a “blue alert” requiring half of the personnel of all regional and municipal disaster risk reduction management offices to be at their posts.–

Worse Than Hell

Re-posted of my column published in MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR from November 14, 2013 with friendy permission of my publisher Marietta F. Siongco

"Yes, "Yolanda", the world's strongest typhoon, was it indeed.

Actually I had another topic for today's column in mind. But Monday (November 11, 2013) the program manager of German News TV Channel N-24 in Berlin gave me a ring asking me if I would like to become their new Philippine correspondent. Right now because of typhoon "Yolanda" and in future for reports from the Philippines. I agreed and, just out of the blue, I delivered three live reports over the phone. N-24, similar to the Philippine ANC is screening "breaking news" regarding the situation in the Philippines since yesterday every 30 minutes. The N-24 camera team and reporters didn't get the chance yet to visit the affected areas.

This morning, my inbox has been overloaded by tons of emails sent to me - especially from Grman-Philippine families living in Germany. Many questions are on the table:Where is the plan and why the coordination between the rescue teams is not working? Today's (November 11, 2013) MIRROR's editoril asks also: "Where is the plan? ... What worries us is the rather slow progress of rescue and relief efforts and the apparent lack of any coordinated plan to get every possible help to the affected areas!"

I learned from several private groups, individuals and the German Red Cross, that they don't want to wait any longer. Fact is, and I mentioned it also in my previous TV reports: We are really mistaken believing and expecting goverment to have prepared its rescue and relief efforts before the typhoon arrived.

My heart - and not only mine - bleeds for all the people of the Visayas Regin, especially those families, who lost loved ones and for those who perished in the world's strongest typhoon to make landfall.

German Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at the ASEM - Foreign Minister Meeting in New Delhi started his speech: "On behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany I would like to expressy Typhoon  our heartfelt condolences and symphaties to the victims and the families who have suffered immense losses by lives and properties by Typhoon 'Yolanda'. Germany stands ready to assist and swiftly deliver humanitarian aid!"

Yes, the situation is worse than hell. And it will become more. What is the intensification of "hell"...?"

It's More Fun in Compostela Valley... Let's visit Governor Uy!

Photos - sent to me by press information office of Governor Uy:

Philippine typhoon toll continues to climb - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English

The national government is currently facing an enormous problem on how to raise tens of billions of Pesos in rehabilitation funds in the destructive wake of Typhoon "Pablo:. These are in the sectors of agriculture/fisheries and infrastructure, especially in the hardest hit areas of Compostela Valley Province and Davao Oriental.

Philippine typhoon toll continues to climb - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English

Deadly Taifun - Toedlicher Taifun

More than 200 dead victims ...
Mehr als 200 Todesopfer...

Year of Disasters

Editorial (Friday 30, 2011) Mindanao Daily Mirror - with friendly permission by publisher and editor-in-chief "Tita" Marietta Siongco... .

"Year 2011 will exit to history tomorrow as the year of disasters for our country. Of the many typhoons that hit the Philippines this year. Ondoy and Sendong caused the heaviest damage in this supposed "tropical paradise" in terms of lives lost and number of families left homeless. Internationally, 2011 is considered "Record Year for Bad Weather".

Hopefully, Sendong which was not even considered a typhoon by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Administration (PAGASA) but only categorized as a "storm" spoiled the Christmas session as it devastated many areas with just a little over a week before Christmas Day. The Yuletide season is considered the joyous time of the year, especially by Filipinos who celebrate Christmas the longest in the world.

Hardest hit by Sendong was Northern Mindanao, particularly the neighboring cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.  The combined death toll of the two cities reached over a thousand with still hundreds of missing. And just at the year was about to end, several areas  in Eastern and Southern Mindanao were hit by flash floods caused by heavy rains, incuding Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Compostela Valley in the Davao region and Bukidnon. Even nearby Tagum City was not spared by the storm wrath.

With just a few days before New Year, the town of Kapalong in Davao del Norte and Valencia City in Bukidnon were inundated by floodwaters. According to the MINDANEWS report which the  MIRROR carried in its front page yesteray, 10 out of 11 barangays in Valencia City were flooded with floodwaters rising up to four meters high in many homes, displacing no less than 1,150 families.

A heartening development in the wake of tragedy that hit Northern Mindanao a week or so before Christmas Day is that many provinces and cities in the country donated food, clothing, blankets, thousands of bottles of water and other relief materials to the flood victims in CdO and Iligan worth 2 million pesos, plus 1 million in cash.

And just the other day, the Jesuits in Cagayan de Oro donated a five-hectare land as relocation site for the Sendong victims in the so-called "city of the golden friendship".

Natural Disaster in Mindanao

 The tropical storm Washi (Sendong) struck the northern coast of Mindanao with very heavy rain in a region not accustomed to typhoons, causing rivers to burst their banks, sweeping many residents out to the sea.

The cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro were transformed into mud-filled waterways choked with vehicles and downed trees.

Also Davao City, where I am residing was placed under unusual Storm Signal One. Heavy down pours followed. Storms are indeed rare this far south of the country, and Davaoenos have always boasted that the city is free of storms and typhoons...

Climate changes?!