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This is a new online tool for those who like/need to follow near real-time satellite images of weather. http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/ Be sure that the satellite is set to Himawari-8 for the western Pacific. You can zoom in and out, choose different bands (I find myself often looking at band 13), and select the number of images in your loop and so on. Note: this doesn't provide projected track and model information which can be found elsewhere. PS. RAMMB stands for Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch (NOAA)

Here's some recently published data on Philippine typhoons over the past decade: ocha_phl_destructive_typhoons_2006_to_2016.pdf According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the Philippines is prone to tropical cyclones due to its geographical location which generally produce heavy rains, flooding of large areas and also strong winds which result in heavy casualties to human life and destruction to crops and properties. On average, the country is frequented by 20 tropical cyclones annually, almost half of which made landfall. Between 2006-2016, more than half (65%) of the tropical cyclones that entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) made landfall in the country. About 10 were particularly deadly and destructive in terms of casualties and cost of damages. https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/node/143025

I was having lunch today with a college and the subject of Overseas Aid came up He is a Rotarian and was saying how relief goods destined for victims of Typhoon Yolanda where being held up in the Port of Cebu. He wasn’t sure of all the facts and it was just in general conversation. When I got home it was still in my head so I did a little research of my own and found this. While on the face of it, there are faults on all sides, but Why can not commonsense come into play? It’s as though they are all playing. “Mine Is Bigger Than Yours” game Anyway, for what its worth, here it is. Set free the relief goods There’s no more time to lose in liberating 21 container vans of donations from Belgian citizens intended for typhoon Yolanda victims. After arriving in the Port of Cebu port sometime in January, the cargo sits in the pier useless to the people who need them the most. After the blunder of consigning the shipments to Rotary International, which has no accreditation by the Philippine government as a relief agency or charity to receive tax-free donations, well-meaning donors in that side of Europe would think twice about being so generous again. They didn’t want to deal with the government in the first place, which is why they addressed the goods to the Rotary in Cebu City. That reluctance is proof itself of the lowly trust placed by private citizens of Belgium in the Philippine bureaucracy. That mindset isn’t limited to this small wealthy kingdom. Even overseas Filipinos in other countries hold back and prefer to send their donations home through private commercial couriers. So imagine what they think of the Philippine government right now. It’s water under the bridge to say the senders didn’t abide by donation rules in the Tariff and Customs Code and Department of Finance. We can’t simply “return to sender” the container vans that are racking up daily costs of demurrage for staying behind the time allowed for unloading the cargo in the Cebu International Port. Quiet negotiations were going on for months to break the impasse only to have Cebu businessman Philip Tan, district secretary of Rotary International District 3860, throw up his hands in March and name someone else, a Belgian living in Manila, to find a solution. With so much time lost, no one wants to settle the bill anymore. A pity, because the contents of the vans may include perishable items like food. A simple solution would be for the Bureau of Customs to declare the entire cargo “abandoned”. Then the vans would be forfeited in favor of the government, and the DSWD would have to take charge of distributing the goods to storm victims in Ormoc and Tacloban City — which was the whole point in the first place. Ideally, the distribution was to be done by private volunteers, which can still be done by special arrangement with the agency. Shipping costs to Leyte could be covered by the Navy. Cebu Deputy Collector Paul Alcazaren said his office was reluctant to jump in and declare the 21 vans “abandoned”, opting to give the Belgian donors more time to fix the papers. But that’s an unacceptable waste of more time during a calamity, in this case, seven months after “Haiyan” disaster. As long as relief goods reach the people who need them most in a timely and transparent manner, no one has to assign blame or continue to gripe about red tape. And while we’re trying to get the Belgian donations released, how many other container vans of humanitarian relief aid have gotten stuck in the Port of Cebu? – See more at: http://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/2014/06/06/set-free-the-relief-goods/#sthash.9huuO0Iq.dpuf

Worth keeping an eye on. Has the potential to develop by the looks of things.

There is no area specific thread for these locations yet, the international community needs to start hearing about our friends to the north of Cebu. Please post what you can for information regarding Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda in Cebu Provinces worst hit.

If anyone has a bit of time to donate to the survivors of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan, there is a massive effort repacking food being held at the CICC (Cebu International Conference Center) across from Parkmall. Efforts are going on 24 hours a day, until further notice.