China Typhoon - 42,000 houses destroyed

[Steve Cosby]

Man, what a poster child for why you have building codes and the effectiveness of emergency management personnel:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WEATHER/08/14/china.typhoon/index.html

This Typhoon was only a 100 mph storm but 42,000 houses are reported destroyed along with 1,800 people injured.

That's an amazing difference.

[Patrick99]

You know, it's kinda screwed up that people here make such an enormous deal about Charley or ::insert major hurricane to hit USA here::, yet Asia gets pounded with typhoons almost year round, and these typhoons directly kill some serious numbers of people over there, and you hear nary a peep about it here, not one teardrop or shred of concern. Just making an observation.

[frankthetank]

I totally agree. I read BBC and check out there weather news every day. THey cover all these events, not just US specific ones like our media. Its to bad, with all the US media resources, they don't cover these horrific events over seas more often......02Cents

[Steve Cosby]

There is also an effect from a country that has significant news restrictions in place. What news gets out is sometimes sketchy at best.

[PurdueWx80]

Taiwan doesn't however. I was just there a month and a half ago at the Central Weather Bureau - they get hit by typhoons, on average, 3.5 times EVERY season. That's amazing for such a small island. There was a storm a few years ago that dumped 2 meters of rain in the mountains in <36 hours. Incredible.