That's what aid workers are being greeted with in the Typhoon disaster zone all across the Philippines. Well you've heard about "Kartrina" -- meet her cousin "Yolanda" (or more formally "Haiyan") -- who's unfolding aftermath is beginning to shape up as be FAR worse, than "Kartrina ever conceived of ...
Biggest, Stronges, Deepest Typhoon/Hurricane in history, is bound to leave some 'serious' human misery in its wake.
'Silence' worries aid workers in wake of Typhoon Haiyan; 56K homes wrecked on one island -- Videos
by Nancy Snyderman, Harry Smith and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News
[...]
Most of the damage and deaths were caused by huge waves that inundated towns and swept away coastal villages in scenes that officials likened to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Residents of Tacloban told terrifying accounts of being swept away by a wall of water. Jean Mae Amande, 22, said she was washed several miles from her home by the surge of water. The current ripped her out to sea before pushing her back to shore where she was able to cling to a tree and grab a rope thrown from a boat.
"It's a miracle that the ship was there," Amande said.
Nearly 620,000 people were displaced and 9.5 million "affected" across the Philippines, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
[...]
US marines join typhoon Haiyan rescue operation -- Video
That's good to see ... but can't something else be done?
Well actually ...
How to help: Organizations offering relief to Typhoon Haiyan survivors
[...]
The American Red Cross has launched a family tracing service among other aid operations. [...] mail a check to their local American Red Cross chapter, with "Philippines Typhoons and Flood" in the memo line. {also accepts PayPal}
The Philippine Red Cross said it has mobilized teams on the ground to help with rescue and relief operations. {Accepts PayPal} [...]
UNICEF is taking donations to help provide children with shelter, clean water, nutrition and vaccines. [...] Donations can be made to UNICEF at unicef.org/support. {Accepts PayPal}
World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations organization, said it will send more than 40 tons of high energy biscuits and work with the Filipino government to help with logistics and emergency communications systems. [...] It asks for donations at www.wfpusa.org or by texting the word AID to 27722 to instantly donate $10.
Save the Children is also mounting disaster relief efforts to help children and families in the region with emergency assistance.
World Vision said it will provide food and water to those in evacuation shelters.
Habitat for Humanity plans to offer shelter repair kits for families who need to re-build their damaged houses.
Operation USA said it will allocate donations directly to relief and recovery efforts.
National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) has created a disaster relief fund for victims in the Philippines.
[... more listed in the post ...]
Google has also launched a person finder.
Have at it.
With 'guys and gals' like "Kartrina" and "Yolanda" (and "Sandy") visiting us every few years -- with ever larger footprints on our human domains -- it would seem that Mother Nature has a message for us ...
What ever on earth, could that message be?
How could climate change affect typhoons?
Typhoons, hurricanes and all tropical storms draw their vast energy from the warmth of the sea. As Prof Will Steffen, at the Australian National University, says: "We know sea-surface temperatures are warming pretty much around the planet, so that's a pretty direct influence of climate change on the nature of the storm."
Another key factor is the temperature difference between sea level and the top of the storm, as this gradient is the heat engine that drives storm. Scientists think that climate change is increasing this difference.
Has scientific research made a link between climate change and more severe cyclones?
Yes. Prof Myles Allen, at the University of Oxford, says: "The current consensus is that climate change is not making the risk of hurricanes any greater, but there are physical arguments and evidence that there is a risk of more intense hurricanes." A Nature Geoscience research paper from 2010 found that global warming will increase the average intensity of the storms while the total number of storms will fall, meaning fewer but more severe cyclones. It also found that rainfall in the heart of the storms will increase by 20%.
[...]
Typhoon Haiyan and climate change Q&A
by Damian Carrington, theGuardian.com, Monday 11 November 2013
Well actually, that was a message from some concerned scientists -- Mother Nature was unavailable for comment. Seems she's "un-friended" us for the moment, does it not?
Because with "friends" like us, she really has 'her work' cut out for her in the next few decades ... as the Typhoon/Hurricane ferocity timetable is slated for ever Bigger and Better ... 'Worser' things.