The Shrinking World Will Never Be the Same!
Typhoon Morakot leaves a legacy of deluge and destruction in the Philippines and Taiwan before churning over China
Morakot made landfall on Xiapu, in the eastern province of Fujian, SE coast of China, where more than a million people had been evacuated.
Morakot’s clocked winds of about 118 kilometers per hour on landfall, Xinhua said.
The agency also reported one death: A 4-year-old boy who was buried in debris, which the rescue workers were unable to save him.
Xinhua reported the damge to property as as folows
- More than 300 homes collapsed
- About 16,000 hectares (39,500 acres) of land were flooded
- At least 56 roads were inundated
The typhoon had earlier dumped 2,500mm of rain on Taiwan , more than 2,000mm on Friday and Saturday alone, as it lashed the before heading for China. Taiwan authorities said the flooding was the worst in living memory. At least two people were killed and 15 injured, with 29 others reported as missing.
An 8-story hotel in Chihpen, in the south of Taiwan, collapsed after flood waters washed off its foundations, BBC reported.
About 25 people were reportedly killed in the Philippines after Morakot caused extensive flooding and landslides in the northern part of the country. About 200,000 people in the island of Luzon were affected by flooding and landslides caused by Kiko (Typhoon Morakot).
MTSAT Images of Morakot
MTSAT – Avn Color – Still Frame/ IR CH4 – Date and time as shown
MTSAT – Avn Color Near Real-Time – IR CH4 – Date and time as shown
Still frame dated August 9, 2009 at 12:30UTC. NOAA.
Typhoon Morakot – EO/ NASA
Typhoon Morakot bore down on the island of Taiwan on August 7, 2009. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image at 1:25 p.m. local time (5:25 UTC), the center of the storm was just beginning to reach the shoreline. Morakot was a Category 2 storm with winds of about 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour or 85 knots) and was moving slowly northwest over Taiwan. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast that the storm would pass directly over Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, inundating the city with heavy rain. As a Category 2 storm, Morakot does not possess a distinctive eye. The storm is large, however. Its spiraling clouds stretch from the Philippines to Japan’s southern islands. NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.
Dozens were reported missing, feared dead, after flooding in Taiwan. Photo: AP. Image may be subject to copyright.
Filipino villagers are left stranded after fast moving floodwater cut off a section of highway. Photo: AFP. Image may be subject to copyright.
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