You know, when word first started to spread of Hurricane Sandy here in NYC over a year ago, we weren't really worried. We joked. We called it Frankenstorm. We treated it like a fun snow day, where we planned to stay home and watch movies and eat night cheese in broad daylight. Of course, it turned out to be incredibly unfunny.
That's why we have nothing funny to say about Typhoon Haiyan, a truly groundbreaking meteorological event making its way ever nearer to the Philippines. The storm has reportedly registered as 8.1 out of 8 on the Dvorak scale. It's predicted by experts to be one of the worst storms in history. In the Philippines, a country of 98 million people packed into 115,000 square miles of islands, there is obviously an enormous task at hand when it comes to ensuring the safety of the people affected by this kind of severe weather. On the one hand, the country and its residents are used to the frequency of heavy storms. On the other hand, the death toll even from more minor storms is routinely high, and, according to Bloomberg News, right now many people are still living in shelters and tents after an earthquake that passed through in October.
Here's to hoping some advanced preparedness helps this time. And, our thoughts and prayers with everyone in the way of this terrifying situation.