13 December 2012

Levels of loss of Typhoon Bopha / Pablo

Posted by Dave Petley

Although Typhoon Bopha / Pabol has now faded from the pages of our newspapers, the death toll continues to rise.  The latest NRDDMC Bulletin indicates a total of 902 confirmed fatalities and an additional 934 people reported missing, suggesting that ultimately the number killed will be somewhere over 1500 (bearing in mind that some of those reported missing may turn up).  In total almost 150,000 houses were damaged, of which almost 61,000 have been declared as a total loss.  Estimated economic losses are about US$350 million.  5.5 million people have been affected by the storm.

Landslides have probably claimed many victims.  At one end of the scale, a garbage slide claimed a single life in Zamboanga City, whilst elsewhere hundreds of lives have been lost in debris flows.

Slowly, images of the landslide events are appearing, although it will still be some time before the true picture emerges.  Apart from the debris flow at Barangay Andap that I showed previously, landslide images include:

Multiple shallow landslides and felled trees:

Debris flow damage:

The really big loss areas appear to be:

Caraga, Davao Oriental: 20 death.

Baganga, Davao Oriental: 143 deaths, 38 missing

Cateel, Davao Oriental: 181 deaths, 54 missing

Boston, Davao Oriental: 32 deaths, 4 missing

Monkayo, Compostela Valley: 107 deaths, 9 missing

New Bataan, Compostela Valley: 239 deaths, 485 missing

Compostela, Compostela Valley: 31 deaths, 6 missing

Pantukan, Compostela Valley:  25 deaths, 1 missing