Re: The Philippines:Typhoon Haiyan
bluemanc said:
Looks like its heading for Vietnam,hope they are prepared.
Its hugely weakened from when it went through PH, there shouldn't be too much damage in Vietnam hopefully, and they seemed well prepared.
PH was also well warned, and prepared, but the strength of the storm there, especially in the islands in the east where it first made landfall, was always going to be disastrous.
The vast majority of casualties are from the storm surge, estimated at 10M at its worst, imagine a wall of water 30+ feet on the beach in Southport, or 30 feet of water washing through Market Street in the City Centre, and then add thousands of poor people living in shacks of corrugated metal, many many people had no hope.
PH is a strange country, plenty of well off people with a great western life style, but 10 times as many with nothing at all, living in shanty towns, with no hope of improving their lives, and very vulnerable to disaster.
This storm though has hit everyone, including some very popular tourist areas there, it won't have discriminated too much, and the death toll will be enormous, all very sad.
