Case study of a CLIMATIC HAZARD in a LEDC - Typhoon Haiyan

Location and background

The Philippines area series of islands located in the South China Sea, east of
Vietnam and north of Indonesia. It is between the equator and the Tropic of
Cancer.
The capital of the Philippines is Manila.
Thisislands regularly suffer from typhoons every year during the tropical storm
season.
Populations are growing, so there is pressure to use land that is at risk of the
flooding, storm surges and extreme winds created by tropical storms
The economy of the Philippines relies on farming, fishing, tourism and
manufacturing all of which were damaged.

Cause of the hazard

Typhoon Haiyan originated from an area of low pressure in the North Pacific on
November 2, 2013.
The Pacific was warm and the cross wins were light
On Nov 3rd, as the low pressure moved westwards towards Asia it became a
tropical storm
The storm was given the name Haiyan on November 4,
By Nov 5th the storm had been graded as a typhoon. It hit land at a Category 5
on the Saffir Simpson scale

Details about the climatic hazard and its impact

6300 people died (mostly in Tacloban) and 11 million people have been
affected by the storm.
The UN say 600,000 people have been left homeless and 41,000 homes
destroyed
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated by authorities before the
storm reached land, but many evacuation centre buildings could not withstand
the winds.
The typhoon caused a five metre storm surge with waves of up to 15 metres.
Essential infrastructure such as the airport, roads, bridges, electricity supplies
and communications were destroyed either by storm surge, winds, or later by
landslides. This made it difficult to organise the emergency services, slowing
the rescue effort
By 11 November, the region was declared to be in a state of national calamity
and the international community was called upon for aid.

Responses
The emergency response was coordinated by the World Health Organisation
and the United Nations (UN), other charities such as the Red Cross
Fundraising appeal on 12 November via television, radio, internet and social
media particularly Twitter. This raised millions of pounds worldwide in weeks.

 There were also incidents of looting. Some charity trucks were attacked and
items stolen, including 33 000 large bags of rice. Armed police, soldiers and
British and US armed forces were sent to help
There were no major outbreaks of disease.
The estimated total damage exceeded $8 billion
Grants were made for local fishing businesses to buy new boats, Oxfam
provided rice seed to farmers, Save the Children helped build tent schools to
educate children, and tourist resorts along the coast are slowly being rebuilt.

Thousands signed up for cash for work schemes, in which people are paid by
charities to help rebuild the city.

Technology was important, with satellite images and thermal cameras being
used. Social media such as Twitter and Google Person Finder helped people
locate their friends and family members.