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Asia gets hit by very powerful typhoons almost every year some cat 5 super typhoons get stronger than any Atlantic Hurricane every gets such as Typhoon Haiyan. Though it appears the hysteria from a typhoon strike in the far east on the media is far less than the hysteria when a hurricane is about to hit places like Miami or Houston.
We never hear of super packed highways of evacuation traffic in those areas despite how bad traffic is normally in those places as car ownership skyrocket in the recent decades due to increased wealth particularly in mainland China.
So many people in Shanghai and Hong Kong and parts of Taiwan live right along the coastline but in Shanghai only 200,000 out of a metropolitan area of of 24 million people were evacuated mostly those who live on boats or low lying farming/fishing villages, and like Miami Shanghai is right along the coast. https://web.archive.org/web/20121002...9RHHLJaDCmv5vV
In other major super typhoons that hit Hong Kong directly only about a few thousand people out of 7.2 million in the SAR were evacuated usually in fishing villages and boats as well.
These stores sound weird to those in Asia as no one in their right mind in Asia would think of leaving a building if they live higher than flood line. Thats why they build tall in the first place in those areas. Plenty of such tall buildings in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai are situated along the coastline and people ride out the worst storms just fine.
First of all, Shanghai rarely gets hit by typhoons so it's not a good example at all (though I hope it gets hit by a big one soon). Hong Kong also is not really prone to typhoon. Taiwan usually gets the first hit, and most typhoons' structure gets hammered by Taiwan's topography, which sucks.
In Taiwan and Japan's case, there are more concrete buildings. No, actually there are only concrete buildings. They are hideous, but they can handle earthquakes and typhoons. That's how things usually go back to normal the day after a huge one strikes. For example, last year there was Meranti, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded and the winds speed edged out Irma by a hair, but I don't remember anything about it as the damage was very limited.
And where do you think people can evacuate to? When a typhoon comes, it often covers the entire territory as both Japan and Taiwan are island states. People who live in the mountains and near the coastlines can evacuate to cities, but people in cities have nowhere to go anyway.
Last edited by Greysholic; 09-09-2017 at 09:38 PM..
The Miami story talks about windows being blown out of apartment buildings, but the Shanghai story doesn't mention such details. What do Taiwan and Japan do, to avoid that problem?
Shanghai probably does nothing because as I said, the notion that it's a typhoon prone city is a total lie. What we do is to install typhoon-proof glass, wooden blocks on top of the window, and for stores and shops (or just ground floors) with vitrines they have garage doors.
Concrete is expensive, high rises are still made of steel and concrete, houses would be even less affordable if they did. Some areas are build up the hurricane code, but most elsewhere residential houses are built with stick frames, 1/2" plywood on the exterior, 3/8'' foam on top of that, then vinyl siding on top of the foam. I mean, WHAT'S HOLDING THE HOUSE TOGETHER???? Nothing.
Elnina makes a good point. Another reason people in the US leave is because the places hurricanes hit are often barely above sea level and in some cases, slightly below sea level. For these reasons, people evacuate. Not because of the winds be because the storm surge completely drowns those areas. In the US, most people die from drowning than from wind blown objects.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...ithstand-irma/ Apparently Miami is evacuating downtown Miami in addition to Miami Beach, a concept no Asian city would ever embrace. They even suggest those living in upper floors evacuation, they say its because while they may be physically safe above storm surge floodlines emergency services will not be able to get to them due to the rapid sea water at street level. Storm surge do occur in Asian cities but people in high rises there still definitely stay put. Isn't thats why they build them is to become water proof fortresses in the event of such a storm with flood waters? Plenty of large high rises line the coast of Shanghai, Hong Kong, and the northern part of New Taipei city. There are also plenty of small low rise buildings near them.
Typhoons seem to hit the far east more than hurricanes hit Miami and other cities in the US. Miami has had a long break from being hit by large hurricanes since 2004.
The evacuation of 200,000 was during a direct hit Shanghai got from Super Typhoon Wilpha which had 150 mile per hour sustained winds at its worst. It made landfall in China with 125 miles per hour winds, It went through open waters off the coast of Shanghai largely unimpeded by Taiwan or other land. But Shanghai mostly rode it out fine. Most of the city particularly Pudong is right along the coast.
It appears most of those in China that had been evacuated usually are too poor to have cars therefore sparing the expressways from monster traffic jams. The media may have stated more than a million evacuated but its over a wide 1000 mile landmass and may be out of 40 million residents that live there. If similar percentage from these areas evacuated as the US coastline I.e in Miami 650,000 residents out 2.693 or 24% million live are anticipated to evacuate ahead of Irma, of course you can image the outcome would be far worse than than Lunar New Years or China's 50 lane traffic jam.
You think there will be plenty of residents who will by train tickets to go to other cities where they have relatives to avoid the insanity of being without power. The trains are so convenient in China these days. https://www.theguardian.com/world/20.../weather.china
Hong Kong and its neighbor Guangzhou as well as the pearl river delta has its fair share of powerful "super" typhoons as well
From the most recent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Hato
Typhoon Usagi
Typhoon Utor strikes
Typhoon Vicente
Though makes me wonder is it because the city floor of Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, and Shanghai is much higher than Miami?
Florida is no better than Japan in terms of where people could evacuate to as Florida is pretty much an island with only one side that is connect to the mainland too far for most residents to drive to. Most people in Florida just evacuate to a portion that is outside the evacuation zone normally closest place they can find relatives or friends they could stay with or hotel rooms.
I'm from Hong Kong and we've got hit by several typhoons this year.
There were strong winds and storm surge but apart from that, not much devastation made to the city and everything resumed back to normal the day after.
As long as you stay inside your apartment you'll be fine.
The strongest typhoons generally hit the Philippines and people don't have the resources to evacuate and the casualties can get quite high (Haiyan in 2013 killed over 6,000 people). Taiwan also gets heavily hit, but the majority of the population is inland in basins with high mountains. That geography due to being in the Pacific ring of fire can make quite a difference as you don't have entire large metropolitan areas located in wholly low-lying areas, but then again, that geography comes with earthquakes and tsunamis so it's not the best trade-off either.
The American Military Industrial Complex built the super highways to support mobilization as well as dispersal for WWIII. Since the roads exist they can also be used if given warning of an act of God natural disaster coming.
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