Tragedy drew world attention

Local and international media captured the ensuing chaos, confusion and paralysis following the landfall of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

Several media outlets reported the glaring disparity in the typhoon measurement employed by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and international typhoon monitoring agencies such as the Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).

Inquirer.net, the online news portal of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, posted this report at 9:10 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2013: “Yolanda has made second landfall over Dulag-Tolosa, Leyte, with maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 275 kph, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said at 7 a.m.”

But the same report noted that the JTWC indicated that Yolanda packed maximum sustained winds of 314 kph and gusts of up to 378 kph. It was later explained that Pagasa calculated wind speeds based on 10-minute averages, while the JTWC used minute-long measurements.

A day before Pagasa raised storm signals in over 58 areas, The Washington Post had already warned of possible “widespread destruction,” describing Yolanda as “among the most powerful storms witnessed anywhere in modern times.”

The Washington Post report said Yolanda was a “Category 5 Supertyphoon by US standards and ‘has joined an elite club among the strongest cyclones to form on Earth.’”