Super Typhoon Nears Philippines With 170 M.P.H. Winds

Not bad for a Chinese hoax called Climate Change.

Sounds like positive news so far. During Typhoon Haiyan one of the shelters was a stadium located adjacent to the sea. The typhoon created tsunami-like conditions forcing sea water into the stadium killing many. This time the authorities seem to have learned from that disaster.

Can we have some reporting on the crops? I understand that rice paddies and salt water don't mix.

I've been to Laoag & Vigan, simple, historic places, with old stone and modern concrete everywhere if you're fortunate, but grateful for anything they can get. Inequality is everywhere. Tourists are rare. The infrastructure is wanting. Undergrounding of power even between communities let alone within, is rare. The terrain is challenging. Cellphone & Internet nationwide is poor. Solar suits remote areas, but with squatter communities -people living on land that isn't theirs- there are deep-seated issues that need solving first. With rising temperatures globally, these countries are the ones that need help governing. Worldwide, some need first world hit squads to insulate them from deadly peril. It's not money, it's the brains to analyse, solve, equip and deploy. Each time the networks report on these calamities, it's difficult to conclude that anybody listens. Leadership is about listening. As we evolve as a species, we must listen, analyse and react. On an international level, our leaders need to step up & help one another. The alternative is, I'm afraid, reinforced hierarchy of wealth and inability to cope in the years ahead. As we compare two very different storms, humanity itself is beginning to reach a crossroads of whether to care or not. Ilocos Norte & Carolinas have differing storms but face the same destiny. It's up to us whether our leaders learn from the vicious present, let alone learn from the tumultuous past.

I have to commend the quick-thinking governor of Ilocos Norte, Imee Marcos, the late dictator's daughter, for declaring a liquor ban to "minimize casualties".

This makes me sick. These are strong, resilient, but poor people who don't have a lot of choices during disasters. During the last giant typhoon five years ago I was on a cruise ship with a crew comprised mainly of men and women from the Philippines. They couldn't leave, and they had to keep a bunch of spoiled tourists happy and cared for while they had zero news from home and no idea whether their own families were even alive. Their future employment was essential, and it depended on the quality of their service.

It is past time to call these corrupt "climate change deniers" in "public service" what they are. Criminal threats to the American people and the human race. Brothers and sisters, it is time to rise up against them. Vote them all out of office.

"The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines called on churches throughout the predominantly Catholic country to recite a prayer for deliverance from calamities." Great...thanks.

I copied this link from NOAA satellite Himawari-8 courtesy of WAPO. #OmpongPH https://twitter.com/NOAASatellites/status/1040616636657610752 Impressive but ominous and dreadful. The eye is big and well defined.

Our family in northern Isabela raced to get their rice harvested in time, but as communications up there have been down since Friday morning their time we have no idea if they were able to dry and bag their crop before it was too late. My in-laws are amazingly resilient people - out of four croppings a year they lose most or all of at least two, year in and year out, yet they are always smiling. Most Americans would probably wonder how anyone could possibly live like that, but if you were to ask me I would tell you that we as a nation could learn a lot about what is really important in life and what is not from the Ilocanos of the Cagayan Valley. I know I have.

I want more coverage of the other storms forming and their future potential. Forewarned is forearmed.

Thank you for bringing this front and center. I just looked at the radar an hour or so ago and saw winds of 165 mph sustained. Perhaps after it had gone back to sea. I'm curious, because Haiyan was a wakeup call for me and I've heard Mangkhut compared to that. Any suggestions?

Thank you, New York Times, for featuring this massive storm. The implications for already vulnerable people will be catastrophic (even as most media coverage in the USA is on Florence, a substantially less significant event). As citizens of a global world, it seems the responsible and moral thing to do is to pay close attention to and try to support to everyone in harm's way, not simply those within our borders, including in the media.

I have been through Cat 1 storms with 75 MPH sustained winds. At night, with no power and trees falling on my property in the howling darkness was unsettling. 175 MPH is beyond comprehension.

And we think we've got problems.

The oceans are a huge heat sink, while they warm up slower they also hold the heat longer. The heated water "feeds" storm development and intensity. As water heats it expands (true of gas and solids as well) which increases the total volume in the oceans even without factoring in the melting of huge ice packs which had captured and held 200+ feet of water. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/09/rising-seas-ice-melt... What I want to know is why island nations, including Puerto Rico havent looked to Cuba as an example of how to prepare for these devastating storms. Irma was a cat 5 when it directly hit Cuba and they lost only 10 people. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article172614411.html

In 1944 Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet was almost sunk off the Philippines by a Super Typhoon on a similar track, due to command miscalculations. 100-foot waves: 800 men, 8 ships, and 146 aircraft lost. Different league than Hurricane Florence.

If Trump and GOP were to remain in power, they will distribute our tax monies to wealthy and very soon; we all will be solidifying our roof like this man as well.

This is so scary. Makes Florence look mellow.

To echo Samsara; time too add Category Six!

Oh these poor people! Looking at the photograph of the man attempting to secure the roof of his home, it seems clear that many of those in the path of the typhoon are not well-to-do or those able to get insurance to rebuild. By the way, just when will the New York Times and other major U.S. publications begin to link these extraordinary-now-becoming-ordinary weather events to climate change in their news coverage? Here's some the science explaining the increasing frequency of these horrendous hurricanes and typhoons and their expanding destructive powers. From a report (scientific language and all) of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University: "Sea level rise–which very likely has a substantial human contribution to the global mean...causing higher storm surge levels for tropical cyclones. "Tropical cyclone rainfall rates will likely increase in the future due to anthropogenic warming and accompanying increase in atmospheric moisture content.  "Tropical cyclone intensities globally will likely increase on average (by 1 to 10% according to model projections for a 2 degree Celsius global warming). This change would imply an even larger percentage increase in the destructive potential per storm, assuming no reduction in storm size." It's time to eliminate “political correctness” in regard to climate change and begin routinely to link these killer storms to global warming so ordinary people will make the connection and act accordingly.