Super Typhoon Bopha Devastates Mindanao

Jut to remind you, Hurricane Sandy was not even a hurricane when it did its damage; a hybrid storm yes, but winds were under 80 mph or so.  Imagine if you will a Super Typhoon, Cat 5, winds at 160 mph — and you living in lashed together housing….

The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Bopha has risen to at 370, with hundreds more missing. Bopha (called “Pablo” in the Philippines), slammed ashore on the Philippine island of Mindanao at 4:45 am local time on Tuesday morning as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds. Bopha is only Category 5 typhoon on record to make landfall on Mindanao, which rarely sees strong typhoons due to its position close to the Equator. Most of the deaths occurred in the gold-rush mountain towns of New Bataan and Monkayo due to typhoon-spawned landslides and flash floods. According to an op-ed published at sunstar.com, much of the death toll can be blamed on the fact that deforestation has reduced forest cover on Mindanao to just 10%, which allows more dangerous flash floods to occur…

and then there is Palau which  got  “a storm surge estimated at ten feet …  where near-total destruction is being reported in some coastal areas.

Wunderblog

The video is mostly in Tagolog but the destruction is obvious

Climate Change?  As one commentator said, if the basketball floor is raised (ocean and atmospheric heat rise) you will expect more slam-dunks.  Yes, this one might have been made anyway, but expect many more.