Super Typhoon Mangkhut (2018)

Date: September 7–17, 2018

Place: Largely the Philippines, Hong Kong, and China

Summary

One of the most powerful storms of 2018 worldwide, Super Typhoon Mangkhut impacted the Philippines, Hong Kong, and southern China in September 2018 killing around 130 in addition to causing billions of dollars in total damages in affected nations.

Key Events

  • September 7, 2018—Atmospheric monitoring agencies identify a tropical depression with the potential to become a cyclone.
  • September 15, 2018—Super Typhoon Mangkhut hits the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
  • September 16, 2018—Typhoon Mangkhut hits Hong Kong and mainland China.
  • September 17, 2018—Mangkhut is downgraded to a tropical storm.

Status

According to numerous reports and studies, 2018 was among the worst years for climate-related disasters in recorded history. In October, another super typhoon, this time named Yutu, struck the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States, before hitting the Philippines in a more weakened state. In December 2018, the UK charity Christian Aid published a report titled Counting the Cost: A Year of Climate Breakdown, in which the organization estimated the approximate costs of various natural disasters over the course of the year. Among the most expensive incidents were Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael, which hit the United States and cost an estimated $32 billion in damage, collectively; the California wildfires, with a cost of $9–13 billion; the European drought, with a cost of $7.5 billion; and Typhoon Mangkhut, which was estimated to have cost approximately $2 billion in damages in the Philippines and China.

As the climate continues to warm, additional threats are expected to emerge as well, including more frequent bouts of disease epidemics, increased competition for resources leading to more frequent and intensified violent conflicts within and between nations, and diminished food and fresh water resources leading to public health threats across the globe. Climate scientists are expecting 2019 to bring additional tropical storms during both the Atlantic and Pacific tropical storm seasons.

In-Depth Overview

The Philippine archipelago, located in the western Pacific Ocean, consists of more than seven thousand islands spread across the string of active volcanoes and earthquake sites known as the Ring of Fire and relatively close to the equator, which means that the archipelago is under frequent threat from both geological disasters and tropical storms. The term “typhoon” is used for a mature tropical storm that forms in the Northwest Pacific with wind speeds between 100 and 120 miles per hour; storms with wind speeds greater than this may be referred to as “super typhoons.” (A similar storm might also be called a hurricane or cyclone, depending on where the storm forms.) On average, the Philippines experiences twenty tropical cyclones each year, the most powerful of which can cause significant fatalities from landslides and flooding. The deadliest typhoon in the history of the Philippines as of 2019 was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which hit in 2013 and killed more than six thousand people, with millions of others injured or left in some other way affected by the devastation caused by the storm. Super Typhoon Haiyan was also believed to have intensified because of climate change and global warming.

In September 2018, another super typhoon, known as Mangkhut in the international press or Ompong in the Philippines, was reported as the fifteenth storm to strike the Philippines in 2018. The storm was first identified as a tropical depression on September 7 and was thereafter monitored by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration as well as other global climatic agencies, such as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). The storm was later upgraded as it gained intensity and was given the name Mangkhut during monitoring. By September 9, the storm had been upgraded to typhoon status.

On September 11, as the JTWC began classifying the storm as a super typhoon due to the intensity of its maximum sustained winds (around 125 mph), Mangkhut passed by the island of Guam, causing flooding, power outages, and property destruction, including the complete destruction of several homes in the cities of Yigo and Dededo. By the time it reached the Philippines, the storm was estimated to have a strength of a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, making it the strongest storm of the year to date; it was also approximately twice the size of Hurricane Florence, which hit the southeastern United States around the same time.

As Mangkhut approached, the Philippine government issued warnings and evacuated thousands of residents from coastal areas. Mangkhut made landfall in the province of Cagayan on the island of Luzon early in the morning on September 15, where it lost some of its intensity, leading the JTWC to reduce its status to typhoon, but it still caused massive property damage, flooding, and deadly landslides in some parts of the country. After passing by and battering both Hong Kong and Macau with strong winds and heavy rain earlier on September 16, the typhoon had made landfall in southern China, in the province of Guangdong, by that afternoon; in anticipation, the Chinese government had arranged for the evacuation of millions of people from the province. By the following day, as the storm continued to move inland with weakening intensity, it was downgraded to a tropical storm.

Super Typhoon Mangkhut destroyed vast amounts of property, mainly in the Philippines and China, resulting in significant property and infrastructure damage. Estimates on the number injured and killed, particularly in the Philippines, were incomplete and many individuals were still missing days after the hurricane passed. As workers continued to search for bodies at the site of a massive landslide in the mining town of Itogon in the Philippines, the number of deaths in the nation was, at one point, estimated to be as high as eighty; some later reports indicated that there were likely more than one hundred dead in total. Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte, who had held emergency meetings to plan before the storm hit, also surveyed the areas damaged.

Key Figures

Rodrigo Duterte: President of the Philippines.

Bibliography

Christian Aid. (2018, December 27). Counting the cost: A year of climate breakdown. Retrieved from https://www.christianaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-01/Counting-the-Cost-report-dec-2018.pdf

Fritz, A. (2018, December 26). The cost of natural disasters this year: $155 billion. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/12/26/cost-natural-disasters-this-year-billion/

Griffiths, J., George, S., & Shelley, J. (2018, September 15). Philippines lashed by Typhoon Mangkhut, strongest storm this year. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/asia/super-typhoon-mangkhut-ompong-wxc-intl/index.html

McKenzie, S., & Berlinger, J. (2018, September 17). Typhoon Mangkhut hits mainland China, lashes Hong Kong, dozens dead in Philippines. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/16/asia/typhoon-mangkhut-china-hong-kong-intl/index.html

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration. (2018, September 20). Typhoon Ompong (Mangkhut/1822) summary report. Retrieved from https://pubfiles.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/tamss/weather/tc‗summary/TY‗Ompong‗MANGKHUT‗2018.pdf

Van Sant, S. (2018, September 14). At least 3 killed after Typhoon Mangkhut slams into the Philippines. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2018/09/14/648005206/super-typhoon-mangkhut-slams-into-the-philippines

Wilkinson, B., & Master, J. (2018, September 14). Philippines evacuates thousands ahead of Super Typhoon Mangkhut. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/asia/typhoon-mangkhut-philippines-intl/index.html