Super typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on Friday. Over 10,000 people are feared dead. Upon landfall, sustained winds were 195 miles/300 km per hour with gusts even higher. That’s like a 700-mile wide EF-4 or EF-5 tornado. For comparison purposes, Hurricane Sandy had wind speeds of 80 miles per hour upon landfall in Brigantine, New Jersey. Can you imagine what would have happened if such a storm would have hit the eastern US? And while we know a typhoon is not a tsunami, the effects are similar the with the strength of the storm lifting water onto land. Ironically, the strength of the storm may have saved the Philippines from even more death and destruction as the typhoon rushed through the Philippines instead of lingering around. Now it is on the way to the rest of Asia, though.
- http://abcnews.go.com/International/typhoon-haiyan-death-toll-reach-10000/story?id=20842316
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/typhoon-haiyan-makes-landfall-in-philippines/2013/11/08/28fe35ca-48a1-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy
- http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-us-assistance/index.html?hpt=ias_c2
