Hurricane/Cyclone/Typhoon Journal Entry

Typhoons Lash Philippines (May 8, 2009)

Two typhoons socked the Philippines this week. Earlier in the week, dangerous Category 3 Typhoons Kujira roared across the western Pacific Ocean and slammed the island of Luzon. The deadly storm killed twenty-seven people and left more than 50,000 others homeless. Most of the victims were killed in a landslide in the coastal town of Magallanes on Luzon's southern tip.

Later in the week, Category 1 Typhoon Chan-Hom swirled across the South China Sea and lashed Luzon's western coast. The typhoon lost its punch as it moved inland over the mountains. But it soaked the island with heavy rain, raising the threat of floods and landslides.

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.

Typhoon Kujira is the first to hit the Philippines this year. Ocean waters in the western Pacific Ocean are the warmest on the planet and tropical storms can form there at any time of the year. On average, about twenty of these storms hit the Philippines each year.