Hurricane Ian, which is considered to wreck much havoc, lashed across Florida and other regions causing much trouble to the people and officials warning of flooding in several regions. It landed in western United States after causing devastation across western Cuba. Similar top Hurricvane Ian Just a few days ahead of Hurricane IAN, another Cyclonic storm — Typhoon Noru– underwent an “explosive” intensification before it hit the Philippines, and then travelling to Vietnam causing heavy damage and floods.
Indian Flash Looks at the two Cyclonic Stroms.
CYCLONES; HURRICANE IAN
Hurricane Ian slammed into Cuba on 27 September as a Category 3 storm, with sustained winds of 205km/h and even stronger gusts leading to flash flooding and mudslides. The Hurricane caused severe damage to infrastructure, housing, agriculture, and telecommunications, with power reportedly lost in the entire country. Pinar del Río, the hardest hit province, is home to 75 per cent of the country’s tobacco production – a key export for Cuba – and about 40 per cent of the nation’s bean production. The UN Resident Coordinator’s Office informed that more than three million people have been affected.
Travelling further, Hurricane IAN made the land fall in Florida on September 29. Ian is the first hurricane to make landfall in mainland United States this season. Major flooding was reported in Orange and Seminole counties and St. Johns River, potentially up to Jacksonville in northeast Florida.
Describing the storm as “500-year flooding event”, Noting that Gov. Ron DeSantis said “we’ve never seen a flood event like this, we’ve never seen a storm surge of this magnitude.” Reports said hat it was real chaos in the region.
CYCLONES; TYPHOON NORU
Typhoon Noru, known in the Philippines as Karding, hit the northeastern part of the Philippines on September 25 as a “super typhoon” with sustained winds of 195 km/h (121 mph) before tracking across the main island of Luzon on September 25. More thantwo million people live in the worst affected areas, according to a disaster analysis, and nearly 430,000 people were directly impacted. Despite the relatively short space of time for mobilization, thousands of people were successfully evacuated, limiting loss of life.
From September 26-27, typhoon Noru made its way towards Viet Nam, and intensified once again. The Typhoon made landfall in Vietnam on September 28 morning, knocking out power and causing flooding and property damage along the country’s central region.
CYCLONES; CLIMATE CHANGE
The World Meteorological Organization has reminded thatclimate change is expected to increase the proportion of major tropical cyclones worldwide, and to increase the heavy rainfall associated with these events. Meanwhile, sea level rise and coastal development are also worsening the impact of coastal flooding.
“The human and socio-economic impacts of these cyclones will be felt for years,” warned Cyrille Honoré, WMO Director of Disaster Risk Reduction and Public Services branch.
CYCLONES; IMPORTANCE OF EARLY WARNINGS
The World Meteorological Organisation underscored that accurate early warnings and coordinated early actionare proving key to limiting casualties during extreme weather events such as Hurricane Ian, Fiona and Thyphoon Noru.
“It is more important than ever that we scale up action on early warning systems to build resilience to current and future climate risks in vulnerable communities,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.
