Sunday, November 17

Typhoon Man-Yi is pummeling the northern Philippines, bringing heavy rain and strong winds to a region that has been devastated by several other typhoons in the past few months.

Man-Yi began in the middle of the Pacific Ocean over a week ago, thousands of miles away from any sort of land. It moved west at a steady pace before picking up speed early last week, blazing past Guam as a tropical storm. Man-Yi then continued its westward path into warmer waters, where it rapidly strengthened before approaching the Philippines on Friday.

The storm made a brief landfall on Catanduanes Island, located on the far eastern side of the Philippines, as a raging typhoon with winds of over 160 mph-- equivalent to those of a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. As it re-emerged into the Pacific, the typhoon slightly weakened to a Category 4 before making a second landfall on the archipelago's largest island of Luzon, which is also home to the capital city of Manila. However, the storm ended up tracking north of Manila, dealing more damage to rural mountain towns on Luzon but having a much weaker impact on the heavily-populated urban sprawl of the capital city.

Over 850,000 people were evacuated ahead of the storm, as much of Luzon is mountainous and extremely susceptible to flash flooding and landslides. Over half of the population of Catanduanes -- around 40,000 people -- were also evacuated as their homes were destroyed in the howling winds. Power was knocked out to Catanduanes as Man-Yi made landfall, and widespread power outages are also expected across Luzon. Dozens of airports and ports were also shut down, affecting air travel and leaving thousands of people stuck on cargo ships and ferries as the storm closed in.

As the storm made landfall, storm surge of over 10 feet slammed into the coastline, with the surge reaching as high as 23 feet in some areas. Due to the impacts of the typhoon, many isolated areas are without cellular signal or electricity, preventing them from communicating with authorities or family members.

The Philippines has been hit hard by typhoons recently-- Man-Yi is the sixth typhoon to hit the archipelago in the last month alone. Typhoons Kong-rey, Yinxing, Trami, Toraji, and Usagi have continually battered the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rain since mid-October, killing over 160 people, displacing over 9 million others, and destroying crucial farms and businesses. While the Philippines is no stranger to natural disasters -- they face over 20 typhoons each year and are located on the Ring of Fire, which sparks earthquakes and volcano eruptions -- climate change is worsening these ongoing issues, creating more frequent, stronger disasters.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Benjamin Franklin reportedly wanted to banish C from the alphabet—along with J, Q, W, and X—and replace them with six letters he invented himself. Doing so, Franklin claimed, would simplify the English language.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Things will take years to create, but minutes to destroy.

(Kannada Proverb)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Steadfast (adj)- Someone described as steadfast is very devoted or loyal to a person, belief, or cause. Steadfast is also used to describe something, such as support, that remains unchanging.

In a Sentence: Despite the singer’s recent change in creative direction, his true fans have remained steadfast.