Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/218481
Sarasota News Leader November 29, 2013 Page 68 the Philippines. It is called Typhoon Haiyan (or Super Typhoon Yolanda, in the Philippines), and it is pushing sustained winds of 195 mph. Gusts are up to 235 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Central barometric pressure is estimated at 898 millibars, only the second storm in the past 22 years with pressure to fall that low. 9 Nov. 3 p.m.: The Philippines' storm, Yolanda, has blown through, leaving an estimated 1,200 dead in its wake. A million people were displaced and took shelter. Winds at the 4:40 a.m. local-time landfall were measured at 145 mph, with gusts to 170 mph. Meanwhile, we are having a quiet year. It has been active in the so-called "Pacific" ocean. Both ocean basins were quiet until mid-September. So far 30 named storms have formed in the western Pacific, and five have become "super typhoons." On average, about 27 storms would get a name in one year. have the 13th named storm of the season, Melissa. A tropical storm in mid-ocean, it carries 29.09 inches of central pressure and sustained winds of 60 mph. 11 Nov., 9 a.m.: The human cost of Yolanda This is off-scale. The Dvorak metric used for is now estimated at 10,000 dead. One town of satellite imagery peaks at 8.0. This afternoon 220,000 is utterly shattered. The Philippines' top disaster official estimated a storm surge scientists estimated Haiyan was at 8.1. of 10 to 13 feet flooded the town, propelled by Storm surge on the eastern shoreline could 140 mph sustained winds. push 10 feet, with 40-foot waves on top — yes, 190 mph sustained winds and a 50-foot "It was a tsunami-like storm surge; it is the wall of water at the shoreline, right now, this worst time," said Eduardo de Rosario, the instant, halfway around the globe. While the executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, storm is the fourth strongest in history, it in an interview after touring the damage at takes top spot for wind intensity at landfall. Tacloban. The previous peak was Hurricane Camille in 1969, which landed in Mississippi with 190 Of particular concern are the missing. There is speculation people were sucked out to sea mph winds. by the receding surge. The eye is tiny, increasing its circulation (and wind speed) like an ice skater pulling in her arms during a spin. 18 Nov., 10 p.m.: Back in the Atlantic, we It has been brewing for the past several days, and it is sufficiently large to raise the surf from Bermuda to Puerto Rico. Looking at the projected track, this is clearly the "humaniUnlike the Atlantic and eastern Pacific, the tarian storm," avoiding any spot of land, no western Pacific has no "typhoon season"; the matter how small. storms can form any time of year. With the season coming to an end in less than two weeks, it looks like Melissa will close the