3.4 Typhoon Haiyan
3.4 Typhoon Haiyan
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What you need to know:
What you need to know:
The causes, effects and responses to Typhoon Haiyan
Typhoon Haiyan, striking in November 2013, was one of the strongest recorded Category 5 storms, with a significant impact on the Philippines.
Why this matters:
Why this matters:
Understanding the severity and impact of such natural disasters is crucial for developing effective response and preparedness strategies.
What happened?
What happened?
Typhoon Haiyan, a category five typhoon, struck the Philippines, close to Tacloban on 8th November, 2013 at 4.40 am.
The tropical storm originated in the northwest Pacific Ocean.
It is one of the most powerful typhoons to affect the Philippines.
Wind speeds of 314 kilometres per hour (195 miles per hour) were recorded
What were the primary effects?
What were the primary effects?
Airport badly damaged
Roads were blocked by fallen trees and other debris
Tacloban experienced a 5-metre storm surge, and 400mm of rainfall flooded an area of up to 1km inland
90% of Tacloban was destroyed
6190 people died
29,000 people were injured
4.1 million people were made homeless
14.1 million people affected
The overall cost of damage was around $12 billion
1.1 million tonnes of crops destroyed
What were the secondary effects?
What were the secondary effects?
Infection and diseases spread, mainly due to contaminated surface and ground water.
Power supplies were cut off for months in some areas.
Education was disrupted as many schools were destroyed.
Seawater, chemicals and sewerage contaminated surface and groundwater.
The airport was badly damaged and roads were blocked by debris and trees.
Looting was rife, due to the lack of food and supplies.
Rice prices had risen by nearly 12% by 2014.
Flooding caused landslides.
What were the immediate responses?
What were the immediate responses?
The government issued a televised warning to people to prepare and evacuate.
800,000 were evacuated following a televised warning by the president.
The government provided essential equipment and medical supplies. A curfew was introduced two days after the typhoon to reduce looting.
Over 1,200 evacuation centres were set up to help the homeless.
One million food packs and 250,000 litres of water were distributed within two weeks.
Over $1.5 billion of foreign aid was pledged.
What were the long term responses?
What were the long term responses?
A cash for work programme paid people to clear debris and rebuild Tacloban.
The international charity organisation Oxfam replaced fishing boats.
Build Back Better is the government’s response to the typhoon. Launched in 2014, it intended to upgrade damaged buildings to protect them from future disasters.
The government set up a no-build zone along the coast and a new storm surge warning system has been developed,
Mangroves (a type of plant) replanted to absorb future storm surges.
Summary
Summary
Typhoon Haiyan was a catastrophic event highlighting the vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme weather.
Climate change contributed to the extreme ocean temperature and therefore the severity of the disaster
The response efforts showcased global solidarity and the importance of disaster readiness and infrastructure resilience.
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