Tropical storms
Assessment:
timed essay on human vs natural
causes of typhoon disasters
1. What are the differences between typhoons, cyclones and hurricanes?
Write a paragraph
Animation of what causes typhoons
2. Watch the clip and change the italicised word in each
sentence to make these correct:
Typhoons form over cool water.
They end as thunderstorms
The air above the sea rises, leaving a high pressure area.
Cool air is sucked downwards forming the nose .
Winds blowing in northerly directions make the storm spin.
Dolphins are taken up from the sea to fill the low pressure
area.
Wind speeds start to decrease and the typhoon moved across
the sea.
3. Storm
surges
What is a storm surge?
Why do storm surges accompany typhoons? Think about pressure.
The flood in this photo is from a storm surge, not from rain.
Challenge: Can you find out how high the storm surge was in Ondoy?
Annotated diagrams
In your notebook:
4. Sketch a diagram of a typhoon
Annotate it to show how it forms
5. Draw a sketch to show a storm surge.
Annotate it to show what it is
Category
Sustained Winds
1
120-153 km/h
2
150-179 km/h
3
(major)
180-209 km/h
4
(major)
210-249 km/h
5
(major)
250 km/h or
higher
Types of Damage Due to Hurricane Winds
Very dangerous winds will produce some damage: Well-constructed
frame homes could have damage to roof, shingles, vinyl siding and gutters.
Large branches of trees will snap and shallowly rooted trees may be
toppled. Extensive damage to power lines and poles likely will result in
power outages that could last a few to several days.
Extremely dangerous winds will cause extensive damage: Wellconstructed frame homes could sustain major roof and siding damage.
Many shallowly rooted trees will be snapped or uprooted and block
numerous roads. Near-total power loss is expected with outages that could
last from several days to weeks.
Devastating damage will occur: Well-built framed homes may incur major
damage or removal of roof decking and gable ends. Many trees will be
snapped or uprooted, blocking numerous roads. Electricity and water will
be unavailable for several days to weeks after the storm passes.
Catastrophic damage will occur: Well-built framed homes can sustain
severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and/or some
exterior walls. Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles
downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power
outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be
uninhabitable for weeks or months.
Catastrophic damage will occur: A high percentage of framed homes will
be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse. Fallen trees and
power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks
to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or
months.
6. Damage: add three pictures to show the damage in a Category 2 storm and a Category 4 storm.
Category 2
Category 4
The essay will be about tropical storm disasters.
7. What is a disaster?
“A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that causes serious disruption of the
functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material,
economic and/or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its own level of resources."
For a disaster to be entered into the UN database, at least one of the
following criteria must be met:
a report of 10 or more people killed
a report of 100 people affected
a declaration of a state of emergency by the relevant
government
a request by the national government for international
assistance
8. Reducing the damage caused by tropical
storms
1. Forecast
2. Prepare
3. Act
1. Forecast
What are the National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center?
Where are they located? What is their job? Do all countries have warning centers?
If not, why not?
Can tropical storms be forecast?
Yes No Partly
Use these words to say whether storms can be
forecast.
Accuracy
Prediction
Speed
Path
‘Cone’ of uncertainty
2. Prepare – how can countries
prepare?
• Education
• Buildings
• Training
• Give examples. Can all countries prepare
equally? Why not?
3. Act
Evacuation – where to, how, when?
Mandatory evacuation – what does that mean?
Can everyone that needs to evacuate do so?
Why not?
Essay: Further research needed
9. Find out about a variety of different typhoons
and what made them into disasters - or not…
i.e. case studies
Get together a variety of case studies to support
human or natural causes of tropical storm
disasters
Factfile: Ondoy, LEDC
Location:
Date:
No of
deaths:
Hazardous
event or
disaster?
Amount of
rain:
Vulnerable?
Duration?
Flood
defences?
Factfile: Bolaven
Location:
Date:
No of
deaths:
Hazardous
event or
disaster?
Amount of
rain:
Vulnerable?
Duration?
Flood
defences?
Factfile: Hurricane Katrina
Location:
Date:
No of
deaths:
Hazardous
event or
disaster?
Amount of
rain:
Vulnerable?
Duration?
Flood
defences?
How to plan an essay
Three parts – what are they?
1.
2.
3.
Essay
Introduction
One paragraph
You set the scene of the essay but you don’t give away what you are going to
conclude
In a match, you don’t want to know the final score at the beginning of the
match
Body
Paragraphs of information and evidence, case studies and examples
Conclusion
Where you say what you have found
Introduction
What the essay is about
Any important definitions
How you are going to go about finding an
answer
Don’t give the conclusion away
Body
What is a typhoon?
How are they measured? Scale – winds, damage
Does wind strength = damage? LEDC vs MEDC
Natural causes of typhoon disasters
Use case studies (compare and contrast)
Human causes of typhoon disasters
Use case studies (compare and contrast)
Sketch diagrams/maps are allowed
Conclusion
Depends on the exact title
What has your evidence led you to believe
Something for the reader to think about – what
about the future?
Essay style
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Formal
Passive
Starters and connectives
Don’t ask questions
Paragraphs
No slang
Write in pen, draw in pencil
Starters and connectives
Use some of the relevant words from the next
two slides to start sentences and connect
together ideas.
Geographical terminology
Some of the words you will need to include:
Disaster Hazard
Forecast Prepare Act
Preparedness
Vulnerability
Storm surge
Prediction
LEDC MEDC Wealth
Category Scale Magnitude
Duration
Risk
Areal extent
Speed of onset
Primary and secondary effects
10. Some research to help you
The Ten Worst Hurricanes Worldwide
10 worst
It is interesting to note that most of the deadliest hurricanes have occurred in southeastern Asia and India, where flooding from tropical cyclones have
wreaked havoc on low-lying, highly populated areas. Note that hurricanes in the western world are called cyclones in the east.
1.November 13, 1970
East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)
The deadliest hurricane on record struck East Pakistan, flooding the low lying areas. At least 500,000 deaths are blamed on the storm, with some
estimates rising as high as 1 million. The storm also had historical consequences: the apparent indifference of Muslim West Pakistan to the plight of the
East Pakistanis has been blamed in part for the eventual separation of East Pakistan, which now is Bangladesh.
2.October 7, 1737: Bengal, India,
at least 300,000.
3.1881: Haiphong, Vietnam
4.1876: Bengal, India
The Haiphong Hurricane killed approximately 300,000
200,000 casualties.
5.June 6, 1882: Bombay, India
At least 100,000
6.May 3, 2008: Burma (Myannmar)
100,000?
The death toll still is being counted from Cyclone Nargis, but foreign diplomats now are saying the total is 100,000
7.October 5, 1864: Calcutta, India,
8.June, 1965: East Pakistan,
50,000 to 70,000
35,000 to 40,000
9.October 16, 1942: Bengal, India,
10.May 28 - 29, 196 East Pakistan,
35,000
22,000
11.October 10 - 12, 1780: The Caribbean
The worst hurricane in Atlantic history, it killed more than 20,000 when it slammed into Martinique and the Barbados.
Bhola – human or natural?
• Taking the cake for the deadliest tropical cyclone ever
recorded the 1970 Bhola Cyclone hit East Pakistan
(Bangladesh today) and India's West Bengal on November
12, 1970. While the exact death toll is unknown it is
estimated that 300,000-500,000 people perished in the
aftermath of this storm, making it one of the deadliest
natural disasters recent history.
This cyclone was not extremely large, reaching strengths
equivalent of a Category 3 Hurricane. The killing power of
this storm was almost completely attributed to the
cyclone's surge which flooded most of the low lying islands
in the Ganges Delta, literally wiping villages and crops off
the face of the earth.
Nina – human or natural?
• Not to be known as some regular typhoon
Super Typhoon Nina came onto the scene with
a bang, hitting China hard and quickly
destroying the Banqiao Dam. The collapse of
the Banqiao Dam led to such great flooding
that it set off a series of dam collapses
throughout China, greatly magnifying the
damage caused by Typhoon Nina.
Kenna – human or natural
• Kenna, a category 5 hurricane, was the 3rd
most intense Pacific hurricane to ever strike
Mexico's West Coast. Hitting San Blas, Nayarit
on October 25th, 2002 was the 3rd Cat 5
hurricane of the hurricane season. 140 mph
winds and a 16 foot surge devastated the
coast line causing $101 million dollars in
damage.
Pauline
• Not happy to just be one of the most destructive Pacific
hurricanes to make landfall in Mexico, Hurricane Pauline
had to be one of the deadliest too.
Working its way up the Mexican coastline Pauline dumped
torrential rain falls with 16" of rain in Acapulco alone! The
relentless downpour caused disastrous landslides in some
of Mexico's poorest villages, killing roughly 250-400 people
and leaving a striking 300,000 people homeless.
Beyond all the lives destroyed Hurricane Pauline caused a
massive amount of damage, exceeding $7.5 billion (USD
1997).
Iniki
• When people think of Hawaii they often imagine lazy days of surfing and
long luaus that go into the night. The last thing most people think of is
hurricanes yet in September of 1992 that's just what they got.
Born from the strong El Nino warm phase of 91-94 Hurricane Iniki reached
cat 4 level winds as the eye passed over the island of Kauaʻi.
Not surprisingly the Hawaiians handled the effects of Hurricane Iniki
amazingly well. Communities held parties to cook all the perishable food
since the power was knocked out. Grocery stores offered free food to
anyone who needed it while most insisted on paying anyways. While there
was some looting in the aftermath of the storm though it was very limited
in comparison to what happened in Katrina and other disasters.
Amazingly there were only 6 deaths attributed to Hurricane Iniki although
the islanders were given less than 24 hours notice. The monetary damage
however was huge for the small island, totalling over $1.8 billion (USD
1992).
1900
•
The year was 1900, the place was Galveston Texas. On September 4th a warning was released
saying a large tropical storm had just passed Cuba and was headed west across the Gulf of Mexico.
Even though the US Weather Bureau had warning that a large storm was on its way their policy at
the time was to avoid pesky words like "hurricane" or "tornado" to avoid giving people a chance to
escape oops, I mean to avoid panic.
In this case panic is really what the people of Galveston should have done as there was a big storm
on it's way and they were grossly unprepared.
In 1900 Galveston was only about 9 feet above sea level which was a bit too low. When the
Galveston Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on September 8th it brought a 15 foot tall storm surge
along with 135mph winds, making it a category 4 hurricane. The surge was so powerful it washed
over the entire island, knocking buildings off their foundations and then pounding them into scraps
of wood. In total over 3600 houses were destroyed.
The Galveston Hurricane is the deadliest natural disaster to ever hit the US, claiming over 6,000
lives. The total damages exceeded $20 million in 1900 dollars, which is over $500 million in todays
dollars (inflation is no joke!).
Katrina
• Still fresh in the memories of American's, especially those from New
Orleans, Hurricane Katrina was the costliest hurricane in US history as well
as one of the 5 most deadliest ever recorded. Knocking out levies in
Louisiana Katrina caused over 80% of New Orleans to flood before moving
into the northeastern United States dumping rain all across the area.
By far the largest natural disaster to ever hit the US Hurricane Katrina is
$80 billion (2008 USD) in damages and killed 1,836 people with 705 still
missing.
One thing that stands out about the Katrina disaster is the utter failure of
FEMA or any other government agency to provide support and rescue
services to the areas. Lawlessness was rampant with police shooting
innocent civilians and going door to door confiscating guns from American
citizens in dry areas just trying to defend their homes.
CBS news
• Gurney notes, "Historically, nine out of ten
fatalities have been related to storm surge.
Storm surge is basically the rising of the water
due to the hurricane's central pressure and
also the winds pushing the water on shore."
High winds aren't as deadly as you might
think.
Criteria for essay
• Knowledge and understanding
• Analysis and application
• Synthesis and evaluation
• Geographical skills: Maps, diagrams, structure,
organised