Typhoon Mirinae

Landfall | Summary
Posting Date: November 1, 2009, 12:00:00 AM

For the fourth time in as many weeks, the Philippines’ Luzon Island has been impacted by typhoon-force winds and precipitation. Yesterday, October 31st, typhoon Mirinea came ashore in central Luzon as a borderline Category 1-2 typhoon. The storm made landfall in Mauban, Quezon at 2 a.m. local time, bringing maximum sustained winds near 145 km/h (90 mph) and rains that triggered flash floods and landslides. As of 9:00 UTC, November 1st, Mirinae is a tropical storm with sustained winds of 74 km/h (46 mph). The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) puts Miriniae 475 kilometers (295 miles) east-northeast of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and tracking westward at 22 km/h (14 mph). The storm is expected to weaken further as it continues to interact with cool waters and strong wind shear before making a second landfall in south-central Vietnam morning on Monday morning. Tracking a similar path to last month’s Typhoon Ketsana, which dropped the heaviest rainfall in 40 years, Mirinae tracked just to the south of Luzon rather than just to the north like Ketsana. Mirinae passed south of Manila by about 40 km (25 miles). Although this course and its forward speed of 24 km/h (15 mph) placed Manila in the path of the strongest winds, wind shear and interaction with the mountainous terrain of Luzon weakened Mirinae as it crossed the island, largely sparing Manila and the surrounding areas from greater damage. However, the storm still managed to drop 85 millimeters (3.3 inches) of rain to Manila and the city of Daet—on the eastern coast of the Philippines—received 150 millimeters (5.8 inches) of precipitation. According to the Philippines National Disaster Coordinating Center, the villages and towns of Santolan and Kalawaan are submerged in 18 centimeter (7 inches)-deep floods. Many major dams reached critical levels due to flood-swollen rivers, but no breaches have been reported. Fourteen people have been killed and four remain missing. Across southern Luzon and the Bicol region, the storm uprooted trees, destroyed four bridges, and caused widespread power outages due to downed power lines. In the Rizal province, 400 temporary housing units were destroyed and Mirinae damaged 60 houses in the towns of Cavite and Ternate. Flights have been cancelled at the international airport in Manila and the Coast Guard has put a ban on sea travel, stranding 8,000 passengers at ferry terminals. More than 5,000 people were evacuated to shelters in seven provinces of southern Luzon. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has also reported that a lava dome has formed in the crater of Mount Mayon, the Philippines’ most active volcano. Officials fear that volcanic activity, together with any heavy rain from Mirinae could trigger lahars, mudslides associated with volcanic mountains. As if Luzon has not had enough rain already, there is yet another tropical disturbance located several hundred kilometers east of northern Luzon and moving westward. It has become more organized in the last 24 hours and, while it may pass just north of Luzon, it could potentially bring more heavy rain to the island. In the landfall location of Quezon, AIR estimates that the residential insurable exposures for this territory are 35 billion dollars (USD) and the commercial residential insurable exposures, including contents, are near 9 billion dollars (USD). The AIR tropical cyclone team has conducted simulations of Mirinae based on the latest available meteorological data for the storm. Because of low insurance take-up rates for the affected region, AIR estimates that insured property losses will be minimal.

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Posting Date: November 1, 2009, 12:00:00 AM