Saturday, November 9, 2013

"Landslides and typhoon Haiyan"

"As I write typhoon Haiyan is tracking across the Philippines. Jeff Masters reports that this is likely to be the most intense landfalling tropical cyclone on record; as such the damage on the areas affected is likely to be extreme. As I have noted previously, whilst it is the wind that tends to grab the attention of the media (and wind speeds of 310 km/h are clearly devastating), most of the damage is done by water, in the form of the storm surge, waves, floods and landslides. In terms of the latter, unfortunately the island of Leyte, across which the storm has just tracked, is very landslide prone. Indeed, Leyte was the location of one of the most devastating landslides in recent times, when the Guinsaugon landslide of 2006 caused 1126 deaths:"

Photo by Lance Cpl. Raymond D. Petersen III
Interestingly, the Guinsaugon landslide occurred as a result of ten days of rainfall that deposited over 2,000 mm of precipitation in total.
Typhoon Haiyan seen from space

Typhoon Haiyan seen from space
AGU Dave Petley , Michael Rusch ‏@weeddude

14 comments:

chickelit said...

Isn't Leyte the name of a famous WW II naval battle?

AllenS said...

deposited over 2,000 mm of precipitation in total.

Inches. I need that in inches.

rcocean said...

Yes, this is Typhoon season for Leyte and its one reason it took so long to conquer Leyte in October - November 1944.

Later, when Halsey's Fleet went back to rest and repair he got caught in a Typhoon that is shown in the "Caine Mutiny"

chickelit said...

I second Allens. Why didn't that say 2 meters of rain, equivalent to about two yards or 6 feet?

rcocean said...

A cm is about an inch - so that's 20 inches. about.

AllenS said...

Well, a cm might be just about an inch, but it said 2000 mm, which, I would assume is something different.

Once I'm elected POTUS, that metric shit will be illegal to use. Along with playing the song Dancing Queen, which will cost you your life if you play it.

john said...

2.54 cm/inch, so a cm is about .4 inch. 2000 mm is 2 meters, about 78 inches of rain. That's wet.

Get this nice little conversion app for your metrically challenged desktop: http://joshmadison.com/convert-for-windows/

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Pacific typhoons are monsters. This is a bad storm.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

2000 mm is two meters or over six feet of rain (about six and a half feet).

deborah said...

At comment #504 in Lem's second link is a vid about Fukushima, making the speculation of a 7 earthquake (95% chance in next three years) causing Japan to become uninhabitable and the NA Pacific coast needing to be evacuated. I've tried to key to the last part, but can't. Start at 3 minutes for quick listen:

Fukushima

Chip Ahoy said...

Ha! They have mm mixed up

They're trying to say 8", eight inches of rain. A lot.

Not eight feet. Also a lot.

8"= 203mm
2,000mm=79 inches By their own report that is too much.

Never trust science reporting.

2,000 miliLiters would be like two quarts.

AllenS said...

Conversion table:

Metric: It rained 2000 cm

Standard: It rained 68"

Redneck: It rain a whole fuck of a lot.

Unknown said...

Deborah - yeah -that's terrifying.

Unknown said...

Latest: Death toll in Philippines could reach 10,000.