Coastal Flood Disaster during Super Typhoon Haiyan in Hernani, Eastern Samar, Philippine

Abstract

Super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in November 2013 caused coastal flooding and severe damage in coastal zones not only in bays but also along open coastlines. In the Town of Hernani, located on the open Pacific coast of Eastern Samar province in the Philippines, the flooding and resulting washed-away houses were recorded in a widely-viewed video. This paper provides field survey results from Hernani including eyewitness accounts of inundation heights and time series profiles, measured ground levels and estimated sea bottom profiles, and measured dimensions of coastal dikes and of houses shown in the video. Information gathered here suggests that wave groups were the direct cause of coastal flooding in Hernani. Results in this paper will contribute to analysis of large wave disasters and flood prevention in open coastal zones.

Destructive tsunami-like wave generated by surf beat over a coral reef during Typhoon Haiyan

“…However, the computed surge was neither deep enough nor energetic enough to result in the flooding seen in Fig. 2 , in which the flow depth and speed were around 2 m and 5 m s −1 , respectively, and landward-directed flow duration at the house was a minute or longer 3 .…”

“…During the authors' interviews of town residents as well as the survey conducted by Nobuoka et al . 3 , witnesses reported that three to four destructive bores struck the town, and that the duration of the flooding caused by each bore was on the order of minutes. Since storm-induced ocean waves generally have periods of <20 s, the nature of this event has remained a mystery.…”

Tsunami versus Infragravity Surge: Comparison of the Physical Character of Extreme Runup

“…On 8 November 2013 Typhoon Haiyan generated large surge and waves and devastated, among many others, the coastal town of Hernani in the Philippines (Nobuoka et al, 2014). Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people and injured more than 28,689 in the Philippines (Lagmay et al, 2014).…”