Bolaven formed as a tropical depression over the western Pacific Ocean on August 20, 2012, and strengthened to a typhoon the following day. By Friday (August 24), the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Bolaven was located roughly 410 nautical miles (760 kilometers) southeast of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan.
After four other Typhoons—Saola,Damrey,Haikui, and Kai-tak—made landfall in eastern China in just three weeks, Typhoon Tembin appeared ready to do the same. Tembin formed as a tropical depression over the western Pacific Ocean on August 19, 2012, and strengthened to a typhoon the next day.
Photo taken on Aug. 17, 2012 shows lightning above buildings as Typhoon Kai-Tak approaches in Nanning City, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Image Corbis.
Shortly before noon today (August 17, 2012), the eye of Typhoon Kai-tak was located just off the eastern shore of China’s Leizhou Bandao (Leizhou Peninsula).
By late Monday (August 13, 2012), Tropical Storm Kai-tak was extending spiral arms over the northern Philippines, on a longer path toward the southeastern coast of China.
Torrential rains inundated the northern Philippines in early August 2012.
The Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council stated that monsoon rains enhanced by Typhoon Haikui led to flooding. By August 7, flood waters were neck deep in parts of the capital city of Manila. By August 11, the death toll stood at 65, The Philippine Star reported. More than 600,000 residents had been displaced, and crops and fisheries had sustained severe losses.
This color-coded image shows rainfall totals in the Philippines and the surrounding region from July 25 to August 9, 2012. The heaviest rainfall—more than 900 millimeters (35 inches)—appears in dark blue. The lightest rainfall—less than 100 millimeters (4 inches)—appears in light green. Trace amounts of rain appear in yellow. The heaviest rainfall is concentrated immediately west of the northern Philippines, and some of the very heavy rain extends into Manila.
This image is based on data from the Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis produced at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which estimates rainfall by combining measurements from many satellites and calibrating them using rainfall measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite.
Because this image is an estimate of the rainfall recorded over a very large area when the satellites are overhead, it may miss pockets of heavy rain in smaller areas, or short periods of more or less intense rain. As a result, local rainfall totals measured from the ground may differ from the estimate shown here.
The monsoon floods struck shortly after Typhoon Saola claimed dozens of lives in the Philippines. On August 10, 2012, authorities reported that rescue operations for the latest round of flooding continued through the Manila metropolitan area. Meanwhile, forecasters warned that more rain could fall on the northern Philippines over the coming days.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the TRMM Science Data and Information System at Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott. Instrument: TRMM - MPA
The UN and its partners have revised upwards their emergency appeal for storm-affected Mindanao in the Philippines to US$39 million from the original $28.4 million.
The second emergency revision of the Humanitarian Action Plan for Mindanao (HAP) was revised on 3 February, allowing for continued vital assistance to more than 300,000 people over a six-month period.
"We focused on the immediate evacuation in the early days... We now need to ensure that we accelerate the safe, voluntary and early return and relocation of the displaced," David Carden, country head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN in Manila.
The move comes in response to what has been described as a "dramatic increase of needs" more than a month after tropical storm Washi struck northern parts of the island.
More than 1,200 people lost their lives and another million were affected when Washi struck on 16-18 December, triggering flash floods and landslides.
Tens of thousands were driven into hastily erected evacuation centres, many of them schools, where they were provided with basic needs such as food, clothing, medicine and shelter after the government and aid organizations launched a large-scale relief operation for more than 400,000 people.
According to OCHA, about $9.6 million (or 25 percent) of the initial appeal, including $3 million disbursed from the Central Emergency Fund (CERF), has been provided to date; however, outside bilateral donations from various governments amounting to $22 million had also helped significantly in the humanitarian effort.
But while donations continue to come in, the challenge in reaching those living in hard-to-reach communities remains.
"There are people in some remote rural areas who are still quite vulnerable, who certainly are in need of humanitarian assistance," Carden said, citing the pressing need for shelter.
In a statement on 3 February, the UN said: "Sustained assistance is needed given that hundreds of thousands of people remain without homes and livelihoods."
Under the revised appeal, priority will be given to all affected, including the displaced in evacuation centres and transitional sites as well as people seeking refuge in makeshift shelters and with relatives in areas where their houses stood prior to the disaster and host communities themselves.
"Many lives have been saved through our interventions to date," Jacqui Badcock, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Philippines, said. "But, unless this assistance is sustained and adequate shelter solutions are provided to all the displaced, many will remain vulnerable and unable to sustain themselves and their families."
Malnutrition Underscoring those needs further, on 1 February, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) expressed concern over acute malnutrition rates in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
"Malnutrition is an especially serious concern for Mindanao, where a significant number of children are already undernourished," Abdul Alim, acting UNICEF country representative, said, describing this as an additional blow to these children's health.
During a recent screening supported by UNICEF, 207 children were found to be acutely malnourished - a 50 percent increase compared with a screening carried out at the beginning of the emergency.
It said the children diagnosed were afflicted with "wasting" - when muscles and fat waste away. "A child has a 30 percent chance of dying if it is left untreated," UNICEF warned.
