News report is from yesterday. Probably more up to date information elsewhere. I was watching the morning news.
1200 dead in just two locations.
Last night’s news said gusts up to 230 mph. This makes it a so-called “super typhoon”, much like typhoon Pamela that hit Guam in 1976, recording gusts up to 240 mph.
Do we have any Dopers in the Phillipines?
They’ve surely all been blown to Vietnam.
Me, in the capital Manila. Death reports still coming in due to poor communication with the affected areas.
Stay safe, the diego.
Best of luck. I experienced Sandy a year ago and I’m sure that was nothing by comparison but it was still quite scary.
The photos of destruction remind me of what Hurricane Ivan did to our little island back in Sept 2004. With damage to the communications infrastructure it was a couple weeks before a full assessment could be completed.
Hopefully the international community will respond mightily to help the Philippines recover.
Speaking of Vietnam, the latest probability cone reports that the typhoon is headed straight to Hanoi.
This is just the break the Johnson administration has been waiting for.
Not good.
Stray safe, diego. BBC and CNN are saying it was 3.5 times stronger than Hurricane Katrina in 2005. BBC is saying it is directly comparable with the 2004 tsunami. 10,000 dead so far in one city alone.
I think it’s weakened a bit after passing the Philippines, and Vietnam’s evacuated a lot of people and made other preparations. We’ll see. Should be hitting there anytime now.
I guess the silver lining is that it passed over so fast that it didn’t get a chance to dump too much rain.
Holy Moley! 10,000 estimated dead and that’s just one city. This could very well be the worst disaster in Philippine history. Before that, Taal volcano killed 11,000 a couple centuries ago. In Tacloban City, even buildings with steel trusses toppled. Cars were up-ended. The only blessing was the typhoon didn’t hold that much water so flooding and slides were minimal. But there were a lot of swells and surges in several shore areas.
Thanks for the concern Dopers. I just hope Hanoians will take the cue and from us and get out of the storm’s way.
BBC says the Philippine press is already calling it the worst disaster in the country’s history.
It’s going on 9:30am Monday now (Thailand and Vietnam are an hour behind the Philippines), and it made landfall on mainland Vietnam early this morning. They’ve forcefully evacuated more than 600,000 people. Looks like five deaths reported so far. But it’s weakening. I think BBC just said it’s not even a typhoon anymore.
BBC also just said another system is forming east of the Philippines.
Well, this sucks. BBC was just reporting they can’t get much aid to remote areas yet, because bandits are robbing any- and everyone blind whom they can get their hands on. They’re grabbing the aid for themselves.
It’s in Vietnam now.
Well color me lucky, I guess. I was planning on going to the phillipines to meet someone Oct-30-Nov 16th when my biz partner starting having major medical issues and I had to cancel my trip.
To make it messier, I would have been going to Ormoc, which has been thoroughly smashed by the storm Its about 75 miles west of Tacloban where alot of the news shots are coming from, there is contact coming out of the area via FB and twitter, but apparently all land routes to the city are blocked and the only way in is helicopter or the badly damaged port areas.
I do not know if the woman I was supposed to meet or her family is ok…she was understandably upset when I cancelled my trip so I have not had any contact since then…left text, email, FB messages but no word. Most of the area has no power and minimal cell service from one provider.