SUPER TYPHOON MEGI

(MEANS CATFISH IN
KOREAN) STRIKES THE
PHILIPPINES THEN HEADS
TOWARDS TAIWAN AND CHINA

OCTOBER 22

Walter Hays, Global Alliance for
Disaster Reduction, University of
North Carolina, USA
Megi, known locally as Juan,
was a category 5 super typhoon,
the highest rating, with winds of
more than 250 kph and a
diameter of over 600 km when it
made landfall at Sierra Madres
Estagno Point in Isabela at
11:25 a.m. on Monday.
Megi was a low pressure storm
that was larger and stronger
than Hurricane Katrina, which
devastated New Orleans in 2005.
MEGI: A LOW PRESSURE
STORM
MEGI: 600 KM ACROSS
(NASA PHOTO)
EARLY FORECAST OF
MEGIS PATH
MEGIS FINAL PATH
(AS OF OCT 24
TH
)
About 20 typhoons and tropical
storms hit the Philippines each
year, giving it the reputation as
the welcome mat for the most
destructive cyclones forming in
the Pacific.

Megi, the 10th and strongest typhoon
to hit the Philippines this year,
reached Isabela province on Monday
morning (local time) , October 18
th
,
and by early evening was heading
west-southwest across the north of
the main island of Luzon with winds
of 180 kph
.
MEGI LEAVING LUZON:
MONDAY NIGHT, OCT 18
Megi tore roofs off houses,
destroyed rice crops, toppled
trees, ripped down power lines,
triggered landslides in the
mountains and whipped up huge
waves.
.
On Tuesday (Oct 19
th
), in the
Philippines, 7,000 people
were sheltered in evacuation
centers to avoid problems
associated with the heavy
rain fall; this number later
swelled to 11,600.
.
Typhoon Megi affected more than
300,000 people, leaving an
estimated 200,000 homeless.
.
MEGIS WIND FIELD LEFT A PATH
OF DESTRUCTION
HOUSES OF THE POOREST
OF THE POOR DESTROYED
MEGIS WIND TEARING OFF
A ROOF
MEGIS WIND TEARING OFF
A ROOF
MEGIS WIND TEARING OFF
ROOFS OF GOVERNMENT HOUSES
Weather forecasters say that Megi
produced 50 millimeters per hour of
rain - similar to that produced in
2009 by Tropical Cyclones Ketsana
and Parma when they struck the
northern Philippines in 2009,
causing massive devastation and
over 1,000 deaths.
.
FLOODING
FLOODING
DOWNED TREES
MEGIS WIND DOWNED
TREES
MEGIS WIND KNOCKING
OUR POWER
MEGIS WIND KNOCKED OUT
POWER
MEGIS WIND DAMAGES
ROOF OF GAS STATION
PHILIPPINES HIT BY KETSANA,
PARMA, MIRINAE: SEPT- NOV, 09
2009s KETSANA: CAINTA
RIZAL
2009s KETSANA: QUESON
CITY
2009s KETSANA:
PHILIPPINES; SEPT 23-30
2009s PARMA: PHILIPPINES;
OCT 9
2009s PARMA: MUD FLOWS;
OCT 12
2009s MIRINAE: NOV 2
Initial estimates indicate that
Megi destroyed/damaged
over 6,100 homes.
Initial estimates indicate that
Megis damage to
infrastructure, agriculture,
fisheries and schools in the
Philippines reached 1.4
billion Philippine pesos ($32
million).
.
Loss of communications
made it impossible at first to
estimate casualties, but data
later indicated that loss of life
was only about twenty-two
people.
.
The apparent low death toll
appears to have been the
result of the Philippines
Government's timely
preparations for the storm.
.
MEGI: FORCAST TO REACH
CHINA ON OCTOBER 22
The forecast was for
Typhoon Megi to move to
Taiwan and then towards the
southern coast of China and
Hong Kong, where rainfall
since Sept. 30
th
had already
caused authorities to
evacuate 140,000 from
Hainan Island.
LANDSLIDES - SUHUA
HIGHWAY, TAIWAN: OCT 21
HELICOPTER RESCUE FROM
SUHUA HIGHWAY: OCT 21
BUT the Philippines
Atmospheric, Geophysical and
Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA) was
concerned that two high
pressure ridges might cause
Typhoon Megi to stall or even to
make a U- turn and return to the
Philippines.
While China evacuated 160,000
people and called in fishing
boats before the expected
onslaught of Megi on Friday
(Oct 22
nd
), the storm brought
heavy rainfall to Taiwan on
Thursday (Oct 21
st
), which led to
severe flooding and rock falls.

10,000 BOATS RECALLED IN
FUJIAN PROVINCE: OCT 21
Although a little later arriving
than initially forecast, Megi
made landfall in Zhangzhou City
in the southeastern Chinese
province of Fujian at 12:55 p.m.
Saturday, October 23, 2010

272,300 were evacuated to safe
havens before Megis arrival.

The storm is expected to move
northward at 10 km per hour as
it weakens and to dump an
additional 100 mm or more of
rain during the next 12 hours in
addition to the 200-300 mm or
more that has already fallen in a
broad area.

As a result of preparations in
Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang
provinces, no major casualties
were reported after landfall.


Nevertheless, more than 647,900
people and 26,190 hectares of
crops were affected by the
typhoon, which flattened 500
houses, forced 313,200 people
to evacuate their homes, and
caused losses estimated at
$238 million.