Hurricane/Cyclone/Typhoon Journal Entry
New Typhoon Threatens Philippines (October 22, 2009)
Satellite view of Typhoon Lupit swirling near the Philippines this week. NASA.
The soggy Philippines, still reeling from floods from typhoons Ketsana and Parma, was threatened by another strong storm this week. Typhoon Lupit swirled towards already-soaked northern Philippines packing winds of over 85 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour). Floods and landslides from the two recent storms have killed more than 750 people.
This week, hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes as the typhoon approached. Police went from house to house in the Cordillera mountain region urging residents to leave their homes.
Pools of water in and around Manila from the recent storms raised the threat of waterborne diseases. One of the biggest worries is leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread by water contaminated with urine of infected animals. The disease has already infected about 2,000 people with at least 148 deaths.
Typhoons, hurricanes, and tropical cyclones are different names for tropical storms with winds of over 74 mph (118 km/h). In the western Atlantic Ocean and eastern Pacific Ocean, they're called hurricanes. They're called typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean, and tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean.
