Tropical Storm Washi..

Dear Readers,

I am sure that by now most of you have heard the destruction occurred in Philippines region caused my Tropical Storm Washi, in Japanese Washi means Aquila.

Image resource from  - http://www.wunderground.com

The storm reveal its presence on the 13th Dec 2011, and moving toward the Philippines in the region of Mindanao, made landfall over Mindanao on December 16, 2011. After passing Mindanao, Washi weakened slightly and regained strength in the Sulu Sea on December 17, 2011 and made landfall again at the island of Palawan the following day.

In Malaysia the state of Sabah (Land Below The Wind), we experience intermittent heavy rain for the past few days, but the wind was quite strong since over the week end since 10th December 2011, and if my memory is right the Heavy rain fall experiences some around the 14th Dec 2011 late evening, and another on the 15th and 16th December. I wasn't sure what caused this rain, I thought it was just a normal end of the year rainy season. until I heard over the radio this morning at 8am. that part of Malaysia particularly Sabah will continue to experience strong wind until end of this week.

As you can see the path of Tropical Storm Washi is moving towards the Philippines after making a land fall at Mindanao, and move further up then moving back down towards the South China Sea, this is affect part of east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, along the way, Washi has caused a trail of severe destruction and loses, according to report that there are at least 662 fatalities, and 82 people are officially listed as missing in the storm hit Philippine region. 

According to Meteorological history report "On December 12, 2011, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported that a tropical disturbance had developed about 945 km (585 mi) to the southeast of Guam. During that day, the disturbance rapidly developed further before the JMA and JTWC reported early the next day that the disturbance had developed into a tropical depression. Over the next 24 hours, the depression continued to intensify before the JTWC reported during December 14, that the depression had intensified into a tropical storm. -Wikipedia-"

image source from http://wikipedia.com

image courtesy of NST Press

In Kota Kinabalu today, there have been reports of landslide due to continue rain fall since late last night, which has cause severe land slide in certain part of Sabah especial road towards  Ranau, Kundasang, according to daily news, the land slide occured some 190Km from state capital Kota Kinabalu had cause a traffic to halt along the route for almost 12 hour. 

Thirty four people had a narrow escape when a bus, a lorry and a four-wheel drive vehicle they were travelling in were struck by falling trees and thick mud on the road in Miruru, Ranau about 190km from here.
 It is the main road connecting the state capital here and the major east coast districts such as Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu, Beluran, Kinabatangan and Semporna. (more)

Never the less the damage caused by the land slide along the route towards Ranau cannot compare to the damages and lost faced by our neighboring country Philippines. I would like extend our sincere condolences for loss of family members and pray for their safety and recovery, also to the victim of landslide along Ranau  route we are all glad that they are safe and pray for their speedy recovery.

Storm image of Washi 

 

 Video include in this blog is a view of the Washi storm from youtube.

By the morning of December 17, 2011, a massive relief operation involving the evacuation of 100,000 people was planned. Approximately 20,000 soldiers were mobilized to assist in recovery efforts and evacuations. The Philippine Coast Guard was dispatched to search for missing people after villages were reported to have been swept out to sea. Sixty people were rescued off the coast of El Salvador, Misamis Oriental and another 120 in the waters near Opol township.

Presently in Kota Kinabalu, rain continue to fall since 5pm yesterday evening, and while I am writing this blog post, the rain has just started to fall again, part of road along 1Borneo is experiencing flash floods. so to all those driving in the rain, please drive carefully....