Coastal greenbelts of mangroves and beach forests 05-06-2014 23:35:26 (3611)

The human cost from recent Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) approaches more than 10 million affected (10 percent of our total population) in 41 provinces, and damage of $12-15 billion (five percent of our GDP), even as we are shocked and awed by the superlatives that describe it — the strongest typhoon, at Category 5, ever to touch land with a diameter of 1,750 kilometers wide enough to cover the width of the archipelago and to make five consecutive landfalls, with strong gusts up to a maximum of 315-375 kph that caused devastating storm surges in Eastern Samar, Tacloban and other coastal areas.