CHAPTER Whethering the Storm The Twin Natures of Typhoons Haiyan and Yolanda GREG BANKOFF and GEORGE EMMANUEL BORRINAGA Super Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda, started life as a tropical depression in the western North Pacific (WNP) somewhere southeast of Pohnpei on November , . As it tracked in a west-northwesterly direction, it intensified into a tropical storm, then passed over the small island nation of Palau before developing into one of the strongest cyclones in world history as it struck the central Philippines. Making landfall near Guiuan on eastern Samar in the early morning of November Ͱ with maximum wind speeds around kilometers per hour, the typhoon was accompanied by a storm surge with wave heights of be- tween six and seven meters and rain that caused extensive flooding, even if it was “not very heavy in comparison to many other tropical cyclones making landfall in the Philippines in the past” (Neussner , ). The is- lands of Samar and Leyte were particularly hard hit with Tacloban City, the capital and seat of government of Region VIII, virtually wiped off the map: percent of structures were destroyed and another percent severely damaged. More than , people died, over million people were left homeless, and perhaps as many as million people were affected in some way. Damages amounted to as much as . billion (PHP ͱ billion) with near-total losses to agricultural production in the eastern Visayas, partic- ularly sugarcane, rice, and copra. The regional GDP is estimated to have been cut by at least percent (Daniell et al. , –). About twenty-five tropical depressions reach storm intensity or higher each year over the warm waters of the WNP, mainly between April and De- cember. In fact, the WNP accounts for about one-third of all such storms in the world (Elsner and Liu ; Japan Meteorological Agency n.d.). Tropical cyclones whose maximum wind speeds exceed ͱ kilometers per hour are known as typhoons and are mainly referred to in the Philippines