Typhoon Lupit

By Peter Fisher

Where did it Happen?• Typhoon Lupit was formed on

the 14th of October 2009, it was estimated to be 380 nautical miles north of Kwajalein Island. At first the convection seemed unorganised but was starting to consolidate, and it was forming in an area where there was favourable sea surface temperatures and a good vertical windshear. This developed throughout the day and it eventually reached a stage where a “Tropical Cyclone Alert” was issued to surrounding countries.

• This was Later classed as a Tropical Depression, which later lead on to a week long tropical storm.

Here we can see the path that Typhoon Lupit took. We see that it starts out in line with the Philippine Islands and makes it all the way past Japan and up to the Kuril Islands Near the South of Russia.

Japan

The Philippines

Starting Point

What Was The Immediate Effect?• The immediate effect was most noticed in

the Philippines, they experienced a week long tropical storm and severe winds causing damage to local agriculture.

• The infrastructure of the country wasn’t very badly hit, as there wasn’t much of it left to hit, the reason for this is that the Philippine Islands had recently suffered from multiple other typhoons, Typhoon Parma and Typhoon Ketsana that had caused severe damage to the infra structure of certain Islands. Typhoon Lupit was the third to effect them. These previous typhoons had left hundreds displaced and around 200 people dead. The typhoons had also left severe flooding on almost all Islands.

• Typhoon Lupit did however increase the rate of flooding. This also lead to vast amounts of stagnant water being brought inland and polluting the clean water source.

• This all happened but Typhoon Lupit never actually made contact with the Philippine Islands, it missed them by approximately 1800 metres . Here we see a young girl who’s

home was originally destroyed by a previous Typhoon but was worsened by Typhoon Lupit.

What Were The Long Term Effects?

• There was a major long term problem that arose from Typhoon Lupit, this was water born diseases, these occurred due to stagnant water poisoning clean water sources in the Philippines the main disease to be spread was Leptospirosis, this had already claimed 150 lives in the Philippines due to the previous Typhoons. Commonly known as rat fever, leptospirosis, is caused by exposure to contaminated water and can cause symptoms ranging from fever and chills to liver failure and meningitis. This is a very serious problem and could lead to a severe out break and will inevitably lead to more deaths in the Philippines. There are also problems such as loss of farm land due to flooding. These could take months to dry out and by that time they would be unusable to grow crops. So this will lead to starvation which will again lead to death in the Philippines.

This is one of the visual symptoms of Leptospirosis.

Why Was It So Devastating?• The odd thing about this was that it

wasn't the typhoon itself that was the reason that there was so much devastation. It was the aftermath that it caused such as the elongated flooding and water born diseases from the pollution of stagnant water.

• There was also the amount of damage that was already there before Typhoon Lupit made its arrival so instead of just leaving damage instead it just contributed and/or worsened what was already there.

• The Philippine Islands are not made to cope with natural disasters as they are literally just small islands, and they do not contain any shelters or building that could be used in case of an emergency such as this. And because of this there is next to no money to start the production of them, as all the money they have is needed to be spent on repairing the damage caused by the three Typhoons.

Here we see some of the extensive flooding caused by Typhoons Parma, Ketsans and Lupit.

Why Does The Fact That It Was An LEDC Make It

Worse?• Since the Philippines is an LEDC they

are not able to support themselves through this as they do not have the resources to sort out this problem which means that they rely on foreign aid. This is bad as it will increase the recovery time and the aid sent is usually no where near enough to sort the problem for everyone. They are receiving aid from the U.S.A in the form of $3.2 million of medical aid, this will with out a doubt help the country but will most likely not be enough. Especially when you take into account the devastation also caused by Typhoons Ketsans and Parma before hand.

• We also know that with an LEDC the rate of education is usually lower meaning that even if the people did have the means to sort out the problem they may not understand how to fix the problems which in turn may make things worse.

• There will also probably a lack in the quality of health and medication there so many people would be very vulnerable to diseases other than Leptospirosis.

We see here that on an Island in The Philippines the main building type is basic shanty type housing, showing a lack of industrialisation, and development.

How Will The Disaster Affect Development?

This will seriously affect development in the Philippines as it has caused so many different problems for them to start Typhoons Ketsans and Parma had left nearly 1000 people dead and colossal damage to the Philippines infrastructure which will cost lots of money and take a long time to repair. Then we have the Diseases that will be caused by the water pollution, this will lead to deaths and cost them millions in Medical supplies, millions that the Philippines do not posses. Then you have the flooding that has occurred, not only will this take time to dissipate it will destroy crops farm land and infrastructure which will again cost The Philippines money. Having to spend all this money would lead to the economy suffering, which would make it even harder for the Philippines to start to develop. Here we can see where extensive

flooding has damaged infrastructure and farmland.

Flooded Farm Land.

Flooded Housing

The End