Despite early warnings — including an address from the President on the eve of the typhoon — typhoon Haiyan left many Visayas regions ravaged. The Washington Post reports a combination of factors contributed to the massive destruction: geography, population density, poverty, and government. One of the hardest-hit areas, Tacloban City, lies on a funnel-shaped bay in the Leyte Gulf. Its location and the shape of the bay made the city vulnerable to storm surges and put it squarely in the path of the typhoon’s disastrous winds. The massive loss of life though could have been prevented if mass evacuations had been done. But Tacloban City is located in a mountainous island where moving people out was not possible. Shelters used as evacuation centers also collapsed under the brunt of the storm. The Associated Press also said poverty, flimsy infrastructure, and a weak central government hampered preparation efforts.
Despite the massive devastation — with a death toll feared to reach 10,000 in one province alone — the estimates wouldn’t put Typhoon Haiyan in the list of top 35 deadliest tropical cyclones. The 1970 Bhola Cyclone in Bangladesh that killed 300,000 to 500,000 is considered the deadliest on record.
Read the full story on Washington Post.
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