VOCABULARY OF NATURAL DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES

• tsunami • Natural • volcano

disasters
• tornado • avalanche • earthquake
• blizzard • drought • bushfire
• tremor • dust storm • magma
• twister • windstorm • heat wave
• cyclone • forest fire • flood
• fire • hailstorm • lava
• lightning • high-pressure • hail
• hurricane • seismic • erosion
• whirlpool • Richter scale • whirlwind
• cloud • thunderstorm • barometer
• gale • blackout • gust
• force • low-pressure • volt
• snowstorm • rainstorm • storm
• nimbus • violent storm • sandstorm
• casualty • Beaufort scale • fatal
• fatality • cumulonimbus • death
• lost • destruction • money
• tension • cataclysm • damage
• uproot • underground • destroy
• arsonist • wind scale • arson
• rescue • permafrost • disaster
• fault • scientist • shelter

IMAGES

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STORIES AND SOME NEWS

Santiago’s survival story

Santiago is 14 and has four siblings: E.J., Amiel, Princess, and Gerardo. He’s
partial to 4-year-old Princess, his only sister. When she smiles, her eyes light up.
Princess feels closest to Santiago too.

“I love him because he always takes care of me and he feeds me,” she says.

When Typhoon Haima bore down on the Philippines, Santiago’s family went to his
grandparents’ house. But when the storm worsened, “My father and my
grandfather had to destroy the plywood at the back of his house for us to escape,”
Santiago says.

“When we checked on our house the following day, I could no longer see a trace of
it,” he says. “Our things were soaked in floodwater, my books and school materials
all destroyed.”

Recalling their narrow escape and their losses, Santiago breaks down and cries
But three days after Super Typhoon Haima ravaged Northern Luzon, relief goods
arrived in Solana.

Families who had lost almost everything, like Santiago’s, received kitchen sets,
blankets, mosquito nets, and hygiene kits containing toothbrushes, toothpaste,
laundry and bath soap.

“We’ve seen the best of people’s generosity in the past days,” Santiago’s mother,
Elena, tells me. “My husband’s boss took us into their home, asking nothing in
return; while you, from Manila, came to give us relief goods.”

Her family was the first to receive relief items in their community.

It was a joy for me to follow them from the World Vision distribution site to the place
where they are staying. Princess excitedly opened boxes while other family
members gathered around to see what they had received.

Were they happy? Yes, they were. Was I happy? Oh yes.

Moments like this are a highlight of my work. While there’s no getting used to
emergency communications, that’s a good thing. It will always be a mix of pain and
joy, sadness and gratitude.

Jonas the farmer is alive but in debt

Another survivor I met is Jonas Pagcanlungan, a farmer. As the storm approached,
Jonas took his sons to his mother’s house, then returned home to look after the
family’s belongings.
“[Typhoon Haima] is the worst I’ve experienced so far,” says 40-year-old Jonas. “It
was too strong. It could have blown me away if I didn’t get to safety.”

By 9 p.m., strong winds were ripping off roofs, toppling trees, and mangling
houses. By 10 p.m., his roof blown off, Jonas fled. “I rushed to my mother’s house
thinking only of my children,” he says.

They made it through the night safely, but the next day brought a sobering
realization: All was lost.

“I was speechless when I saw my totally damaged house,” Jonas says.

Then he looked at the rice field he was expecting to harvest within a month. It was
destroyed.

Jonas had counted on making more than US$300 from his share of the rice. He
had carefully budgeted for debts — he owes for farm and medical expenses — and
for daily needs and his two children’s education. His wife, who works as a
housekeeper in Manila, a 12-hour bus ride away, doesn’t make enough to cover
the family’s expenses.

Jonas’ thoughts were spinning out of control. Where will my children stay? How
can I feed them? How can I pay our debts? Where is my harvest?

“All I could do was sit down and try to calm myself,” he says.
Jonas and Gian, his 7-year-old son, pick through the debris of their belongings.

“I didn’t worry much during the typhoon but when I saw our house and my books
and my notebooks, all destroyed, I felt sad,” says Gian.

Jonas’s worry is tempered by gratitude that his family survived, the knowledge that
there is aid to tide them over, and the determination to build back soon.

News

Northern California Gets Light Rain and Snow

A weak storm system moved through Northern California on Tuesday and a
stronger system was expected in the drought-stricken state during the weekend,
the National Weather Service said.

Meteorologists reported that Sierra Nevada elevations above 6,000 feet (1,829
meters) received 1-3 inches (2.5-7.6 centimeters) of snow, and chains were
required on Interstate 80 through the morning.

The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab said rain unexpectedly turned to snow.

“Happy to have any precipitation at this point, though!” the lab tweeted.

Light rain fell in the San Francisco Bay Area and downtown Sacramento snapped a
66-day span without precipitation.

“Drought buster? Hardly, but we did finally snap the longest dry streak in winter at
downtown Sacramento this past hour," the weather service said.

Forecasters said a colder storm system will move in to Northern California on

Saturday, with snow levels dropping as low as 3,000 feet (914 meters). Resort
levels could get 6 inches (15 centimeters) to 12 inches (30 centimeters).

“It's not a big system but it's looking like it will will at least bring some rain to
region,” the weather service said.

Southern California will see only a chance of rain from the weekend system.
Wildfire Hits Exclusive Community in Southern California
Firefighters are battling a wind-driven brush fire in an exclusive community in Santa
Barbara County., the Los Angeles Times reported.

The fire at the Hollister Ranch — a gated subdivision along the Gaviota Coast,
famed for its untouched beaches — started around 11:30 a.m. Saturday,
authorities said.

As of 6:30 p.m., it had grown to an estimated 100 acres, but no structures were
threatened at the moment, said Sam Ferguson of the Santa Barbara County Fire
Department. Some residents were reportedly told to evacuate as a precaution. No
containment was reported.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. An ambulance unit was called, and an
investigator was responding to the scene, Ferguson said.

The fire, which authorities estimate has the potential to grow to 500 to 1,000 acres,
was burning through dense front-country chaparral, driven by erratic winds,
Ferguson said.