THE RESTORATION OF THE PHILIPPINES FOLLOWING TYPHOON HAIYAN
IV. TOPIC BACKGROUND
Since the beginning of time, the Philippines has been plagued with chronic natural disasters due to its geographical location. Not only does it lie within the Filipino, Australian, and Pacific tectonic plates, it is also located in the circum-Pacific seismic belt, causing the country to be consistently bombarded with typhoons and earthquakes . In an average year, 20 typhoons and almost 2,000 major and minor earthquakes will affect the Philippines . On November 8th 2013, the Category-5 Typhoon Yolanda (International Name: Haiyan) struck the nations of Micronesia, Palau, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and most severely of all, the Philippines . Within the typhoon, winds occurred at over 200 miles per hour, effectively earning the title as the strongest typhoon ever recorded . Typhoon Haiyan emerged several kilometers east of Pohnpei on November 2nd 2013 from regions where a cluster of thunderstorms, revolving in an area with atmospheric pressure at approximately 89.5 kilopascals, formed under areas of wind divergence in upper levels of the troposphere. As the typhoon traveled westward, it favored tropical cyclogenesis through the development of a warm-core cyclone due to significant convention in the now favorable atmospheric environment. Typhoon Haiyan soon began a rapid intensification, and through the conservation of angular momentum, triggered a Category 5 super typhoon . Upon its arrival on early November 8th 2013, the eye of the cyclone made six landfalls, predominately destroying Samar, Leyete, and Tacloban before emerging over the South China Sea . It ultimately faded over Northern Vietnam after transforming into a tropical depression.
Despite th...
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Hurricanes, also known as cyclones or typhoons, are huge, devastating tropical storms that can be up to 600 miles wide. They have strong, forceful winds that spiral inward and upward circling around the “eye” of the storm. Inside the eye, there are clear skies and light winds, however, surrounding the eye wall there are bands of wind and rain that spread out for over hundreds or thousands of miles. Hurricanes begin as tropical disturbances over warm ocean water (27°c or 80°F) and gathers heat and energy as it moves across the ocean. As evaporation from the ocean water increases its power, it changes into a tropical depression (wind speeds of less than 38 mph), then tropical storm (wind speeds of 39-73 mph) to finally a hurricane (wind speeds greater than 75mph). Hurricanes can last two weeks or more over open water and moves about 10-20 miles per hour. The safety of millions of people depends on the meteorologists and their ability to track these storms. Hurricanes may not be dangerous over open water, but are devastating when they hit land. They can cause torrential rains, high winds and storm surges as well as tornadoes, flash floods and land slides. Without warning of these hurricanes approaching, millions could die. The most effective tools meteorologists use are satellite images, radar and aircraft reconnaissance to study and warn people of approaching hurricanes.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina brought a death toll in the thousands and millions of dollars in damage. It was a severe storm “with winds in excess of 150 miles per hour [that] caused 20-foot-high waves to pound the coastlines of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi” (Dass-Brailsford 24). Other than the rescue missions, the city was also concerned with clean up efforts and restoring basic service to residents, which was a huge challenge to the city government. On the other hand, different voices from residents are also caused city government moving slow in decision-making and implementation of the recovery plans. Some progress on recovery plan has been made, but the city is struggling with the slow planning process, the lack of skilled workers, and the low number of returning residents.
Government preparation efforts had been in the works for years prior to Hurricane Katrina striking the Gulf Coast. In fact a recent as 2004 a hurricane drill was hosted by FEMA simulating a disaster event rivaling that of Hurricane Katrina including the evisceration of the city in also a similar manner. This drill, otherwise known as the “Hurricane Pam” drill, caused enough of an effect to get additional funding for preventative measures.
The effects caused by earthquakes are devastating. They cause loss of human life and have effects on infrastructure and economy. Earthquakes can happen at any time anywhere. In January 12, 2010 an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.0 hit the nation of Haiti. An estimation of 316,000 people were killed, and more than 1.3 million Haitians were left homeless (Earthquake Information for 2010). Haiti was in a terrified chaos. After the earthquake, families were separated because many of the members were killed. Homes, schools, and hospitals were demolished. People lost their most valuable belongings. It will take time for the country to recover from this terrible disaster. The long damages are economic issues, health-state, and environmental issues that effect in the beautiful island of Haiti.
Having investigated the case studies of two natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina & Typhoon Haiyan, I have noticed that MEDCs and LEDCs respond much differently to a certain situation. Katrina and Haiyan both happened in countries with contrasting levels of economic development, therefore reacting much differently to the circumstances. In this essay, I will be discussing the various reasons to why LEDCs and MEDCs behave in such a contradictory manner.
Governments, the private sector, Non Governmental Organizations and Community Organizations play vital roles in recovery. The essence of a recovery effort is the resources captures to assist, the capability of assistance and other best practices for recovering from a disaster. Rubin and Popkin, (1990) in their report entitled Disaster Recovery after hurricane Hugo in South Carolina thoroughly outline many challenges to which organization and other bodies had face in Hurricane Hugo’s recovery effort. These inefficiencies cause a spiral of increase lost of life, property and livelihood for hundreds of people to which the hurricane affected.
Every year many natural disasters happen around the world. In New Orleans, and several other states, a devastating hurricane struck. High speed winds and major flooding caused many people to lose their homes and even their lives. Many people have heard of hurricane Katrina, but not everybody knows what caused it and the affect it had on the United States.
Hurricanes are very disastrous events that usually occur over oceans, developing to eventually move towards populated land. Hurricanes form only when ocean waters are 80 degrees Fahrenheit and above. Warm air, mixed with moisture from evaporation from the ocean surface rises, creating low pressure on the water surface, which is immediately replaced by cooler air. This develops into a thunderstorm. The thunderstorm slowly begins to move with mild western winds. In a day or two, stronger vertical currents build up over the ocean’s surface upward. More warm air rises and winds begin to move in a circular manner. This causes pressure to reduce at high altitudes. The entire storm is now in a circular motion around a mid-point. This tropical depression forms into a tropical storm within only a couple of days. The storm moves over warmer waters, clouds expand and wind speeds up to about 74 miles per hour. The tropical storm causes Gale force winds, thunderstorms and heavy rain at full force. As the storm continues westward, the energy from warmer water, in the form of very warm air rising and the gushing of cooler air replacing it throws the storm into a powerful spiral storm that can be seen from space! This storm eventually moves into populated land, causing devastation, death, and billions of dollars!
Natural Disasters can occur anywhere at anytime. Some are more predictable than others, but they all bring hardship to everyone’s life. Examples of natural disasters are Earthquakes (Haiti 2010), Tornadoes, Tsunami, Hurricanes, Wild Fires, Winter Storms, Heat waves, Mudslides and Floods. Regardless of what kind of disaster occurs, bottom line, everyone needs to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with the aftermath. Education is the first step to prepare you to deal with any major disaster. Three of the major disasters that can potentially disrupt normal day to day operations in our lives, are Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes.
intensity and devastated several parts of the United States, with particular damage to the city of
During any natural or man-made incident, such as a hurricane, emergency management uses four vital roles during the incident. Mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery all go hand and hand with each other. Mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery incorporate with one another to make the whole picture, with each being a piece of the puzzle. “Mitigation is an ongoing function of emergency management that involves preventing hazards from developing into disasters and reducing the effects of disasters when they do occur.” (Course Module) Hurricanes mostly form over a large body of water, with this previous knowledge emergency management teams can prepare for hurricane winds, hurricane floods, and storm surges. Jurisdictions use the
The Sichuan province in mainland china has had a long history of seismic activity. On May 12th, 2008 the village of Wenchuan County located in Sichuan province was struck by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. According to the State Council Information Office, the causalities from this disaster were approximately 70,000, with approximately 10,000 confirmed to have been school children, whose deaths resulted from 7,000 collapsed classrooms and 18,000 more individuals, were reported missing (Teets, 330). The earthquake which struck Wenchuan County resulted in bringing together relief efforts from local, national, and international communities. A few examples are: Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Volunteer crews, Military efforts, Sichuan airlines, Red-Cross and many donations from international communities. These relief efforts, a result of strong government communication also, led to strengthening the devastated village and the nation of China. The involvement in recovery efforts strengthens civil society’s individual capacity through mass networks of volunteers and donors, learning new skills in project management, and demonstrating to the government potentially positive roles the community can do. Relief efforts by groups help to build trust and connect potential volunteers and donors on behalf of foreign governing institutions. This essay aims to discuss these efforts in greater detail and provide numerous examples of successful recovery projects in Sichuan province.
Critical steps to keep your facility up and running both during and after a disaster
The Philippines has long been a country with a struggling economy. Ever since World War II, they have struggled to have a steady government and labor system. Independence did not bring any social changes to the country. The hacienda system still persists in the country, where large estates are farmed by sharecroppers. More the half the population are peasants and 20 percent of the population owns 60 percent of the land. Although the sharecropper is supposed to receive half of the harvest, most of the peasant's actual income goes to paying off debts to the landowner. Poverty and conflict strained the industrial growth of the country with many Presidents trying to fix the problems, but failing to do so. Factors that have faced the country are there is almost 9 percent unemployment, and the country suffers from the consequences of a balance of trade deficit. With the resources that the Philippines have, they are capable of pulling themselves out of the economical hole they are in and being up to par with their successful neighboring countries.
To those who suffered from the disaster, always remember that your country is here for you. No matter the obstacles we as a country will push through the obstacles in our way. We may not be invincible but we have heart and we have spirit. I believe, with God’s help we can do anything. Our prayers are with the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan and these prayers will most certainly be backed up by our actions.