Overview

Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, is a destructive tropical storm that landed on the coast of central Philippines on November 7th, 2013, and northern Vietnam on November 10th. The Red Cross estimated that more than 1,200 people were killed as a result of the highly destructive tropical cyclone, although the death toll is expected to rise significantly in the coming days. By maximum speed, Typhoon Haiyan is believed to be strongest storm on record of all time.

Notable Developments

Casualties

By November 10th, the tropical storm had weakened significantly and made its landfall in northern Vietnam, and initial estimates of casualties began to emerge from various aid groups in the Philippines, with some figures expecting more than 10,000 dead in the hard-hit city of Tacloban alone. However, due to limited access to the affected zone, only 151 deaths have been officially confirmed as of November 10th.

Online Reaction

Meanwhile, many Filipinos who were affected by the disaster took their concerns requests to Twitter and Facebook, where people began sharing photographs of their missing relatives and requests for help using a series of purpose-specific hashtags^[14] (shown below) and several emergency relief fund pages^[10][11][13] were created.

Relief Efforts

To help expedite the process, several Fillippino news sites launched the Twitter account @Typhoon Haiyan, where the latest information on the progress of recovery and rescue missions can be found.

On November 11th, Google launched a database of missing people and requests for information, processing more than 17,000 records by midday and 43,100 records as of 7:30 p.m. (ET).

Misreports

In addition, an inspiring quote supposedly issued by CNN began making rounds on Twitter and Instagram, though it was quickly proven by to be a hoax statement falsely attributed to the news organization.

Search Interest

External References