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 typhoons2. Watch the clip and change the italicised word in each sentence to make these correct:

Typhoons form over cool water.They end as thunderstormsThe 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 typhoonAnnotate 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 Types of Damage Due to Hurricane Winds1

120-153 km/hVery 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.

2150-179 km/h

Extremely dangerous winds will cause extensive damage: Well-constructed 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.

3(major) 180-209 km/h

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.

4(major) 210-249 km/h

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.

5(major) 250 km/h or

higher

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 killeda report of 100 people affecteda declaration of a state of emergency by the relevant governmenta request by the national government for international assistance

8. Reducing the damage caused by tropical storms

1. Forecast2. Prepare3. Act

1. ForecastWhat 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 PartlyUse these words to say whether storms can be forecast.

AccuracyPredictionSpeed 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, LEDCLocation:

Date:

No of deaths:Hazardous event or disaster?Amount of rain:Vulnerable?

Duration?

Flood defences?

Location:

Date:

No of deaths:Hazardous event or disaster?Amount of rain:Vulnerable?

Duration?

Flood defences?

Factfile: Bolaven

Factfile: Hurricane KatrinaLocation:

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.

EssayIntroduction One paragraphYou 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 aboutAny important definitionsHow you are going to go about finding an answerDon’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 disastersUse case studies (compare and contrast)

Human causes of typhoon disastersUse 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 terminologySome of the words you will need to include:

Disaster Hazard Forecast Prepare ActPreparednessVulnerabilityStorm surgePredictionLEDC MEDC WealthCategory Scale MagnitudeDurationRiskAreal extentSpeed of onsetPrimary 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 The Haiphong Hurricane killed approximately 300,000

4.1876: Bengal, India 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, 50,000 to 70,000

8.June, 1965: East Pakistan, 35,000 to 40,000

9.October 16, 1942: Bengal, India, 35,000

10.May 28 - 29, 196 East Pakistan, 22,000

11.October 10 - 12, 1780: The CaribbeanThe 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