The strongest storms are not always the deadliest. It all depends where
they strike. But Typhoon Haiyan has proved both strong and deadly. It has
brought winds gusting at up to 170 miles an hour, and it has killed an estimated
10,000 people.
The worst hit area appears to be city of Tacloban on Leyte island in the
Philippines, and the worst damage seems to have been done by the 45 foot waves
the storm generated. More than 670,000 people have been driven from their
homes.
The airport at Tacloban was damaged, at first preventing aircraft
arriving to deliver supplies and evacuate survivors, but now the Philippines
air force is getting transport aircraft in and out. Hundreds of thousands of
people did leave before the typhoon arrived, but many evacuation centres were
unable to withstand the winds and storm surges.
The deadliest storm of all time was probably the cyclone that hit
Bangladesh 43 years ago today, on the night of November 12, 1970. Its winds
peaked at 115 miles an hour as it devastated the low-lying islands of the Bay
of Bengal, killing up to a million people. For the full story see A Disastrous History of the World.
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