You might not of heard of it with all this sturm und drang election news her in the US of A, but Tropical storm Megi (known as Juan locally), a Category 5 tropical storm when it hit Vietnam over the weekend with devastating winds as high as 155 mph, floods and loss of life:
The strongest cyclone in years to buffet the Philippines knocked out communications and power as residents took shelter Monday, while flooding in Vietnam swept away a bus and 20 of its passengers, including a boy taken from his mother’s grasp by the raging waters.
The Chinese government evacuated thousands in advance of Megi hitting China’s coastal region near Hong Kong after the slow moving cyclone passed over the Philippines and Vietnam leaving and scores of dead in its wake.
Some 140,000 people have been evacuated from 15 cities on Hainan island since heavy rains reached the province on Friday, Xinhua, the official news agency, reported.
In the Philippines, Megi – known locally as Juan – was a category 5 super typhoon that packed winds in excess of 250 kph (155 mph).
The death toll in Vietnam now numbers 32 known dead with over 150,000 homes flooded.
We in the US have been fortunate so far thanks to fortuitous low pressure systems that kept most hurricanes and storms from reaching our shores.
It has been one of the busiest seasons in many years, with 16 named storms, nine hurricanes and five major hurricanes packing winds of at least 111 mph. But the United States has been largely spared the type of catastrophic damage associated with hurricanes because of persistent low pressure systems dropping down from the north.
No hurricanes of Megi’s strength made landfall in the United States in 2010, but tropical storms unfortunately occur around the world, not only in the North Atlantic Tropical Zone. And as Tennessee and other inland states can attest this year, the impact of high precipitation events in our country is not limited to the coastal regions.
So while the North Atlantic Hurricane Season did little to impact our nation this year, Megi shows us again that this year of extreme weather events continues unabated.
And the risks of extreme weather such as droughts, heat waves, flooding, wild fires, and yes, even intense snowfall and extreme cold some winters has increased. Climate change means greater extremes and less predictability in our weather patterns.
Or in the words of Russian President Medvedev, hardly a leading proponent of dealing with climate change (until this summer’s heat wave, drought and wild fires killed hundreds, and maybe thousands in his country this summer, that is):
“… The weather is anomalously hot. What’s happening with the planet’s climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us, meaning all heads of state, all heads of social organizations, in order to take a more energetic approach to countering the global changes to the climate.”
* Unlike the fictional “death panels” of health care reform, intense tropical storms actually do kill people, as Megi has done. Just ask the people who lost loved ones when Katrina hit. Thus, the title.
