Yes I would agree completely. Most of the deaths/damage from Hurricanes are indeed the storm surge. I always thought they should get rid of the Saffir-Simpson scale and create a new one based off of the storm surge. Winds do a lot of damage but the main thing people have to worry about in wind is the power going out and slight roof damage/trees falling down. Storm surge flattens everything in it's wake.
If you'd ever been in the Philippines during monsoon season, you would understand. I was there just a few weeks ago, and it was just nothing but rain. Almost every single day. 2pm, like clockwork, it starts coming down. Sometimes its cats and dogs. Typhoons of various degrees roll through like every couple of months. These people are used to riding out severe weather. Over here it's different. Superstorms making landfall are a relatively rare occurrence (once in a couple of years at most), so when we get the warnings we're off to see our auntie in Dallas or at Home Depot buying up plywood. My heart really goes out to them. The Filipinos are the nicest people I have ever met on this earth. They don't deserve this.
These photos say it all http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nos-trying-escape-typhoon-ravaged-region.html
Please remember, you can donate $10 to relief efforts by texting "AID" to 80108. Please spread the word. This is from the US State Department.
You can also text the word RELIEF to short code 27722 to give a $10 donation to Direct Relief International. I looked the group up on Charity Navigator and they have the highest rating on there for a charity, 69.90 out of 70. (Financial 69.87, Accountability & Transparency 70.00)
There may be reasons why people made decisions to "ride it out"... but my point is those reasons are dumb, and a dumb risk to take with young ones, and the result was catastrophic. For days leading up to landfall I read stories about how this was going to be one of the most powerful storms ever. EVER. Maybe Filipino people didn't have access to that information, and if so, shame on the government. But if they did have access, then absolutely, if you had young ones especially, than it was just incredibly reckless to not try and take more precaution.... regardless of upbringing. I just get angry when I hear stories of young kids die'ing when through no fault of their own they were placed in harm's way, and it could have easily been avoided.
There's no place to go... Well, there's actually one. Iglesia ni Cristo church, but news said they won't let people go in. their churches are built like castles.
I suspect that evacuating places like Tacloban, Basey and Guiuan are not as easy as evacuating in the US. (no evacuating Katy jokes) Even here look at all of the problems that happened when Houston was evacuated during Hurricane Rita. Third world countries just don't have the infrastructure to make vast evacuation possible. Add to that the Philippines are islands that have mountains and jungles it's not like people could just drive themselves to safer ground.
Now that dragician mentioned it, Here's the details about that Iglesia ni Cristo story... And the said church. By the way, Iglesia ni Cristo is a religious organization without any formal ties to any major religion like Catholicism. In a nutshell, they are uhm... one of the more financially capable religions of our otherwise religious country, as evidenced by the durability of their churches.
Wow.. so they wouldn't let those people in the church before the storm came or after it had hit? That is horrible.
The storm surge definitely caused tremendous damage, but imagine a large tornado with 200 mph winds and the damage it would cause. Haiyan was basically a 50-100 mile wide F4 tornado at its core -- so there was incredible damage caused by the winds in addition to the storm surge.
