The Storm That Rewrote the Record Books
Part of Weather Hazards — GCSE Geography
This introduction covers The Storm That Rewrote the Record Books within Weather Hazards for GCSE Geography. Revise Weather Hazards in The Challenge of Natural Hazards for GCSE Geography with 15 exam-style questions and 24 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 1 of 14 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 1 of 14
Practice
15 questions
Recall
24 flashcards
🌀 The Storm That Rewrote the Record Books
A wall of water 7.5 metres high — taller than a double-decker bus standing on top of another — rolled inland across the city of Tacloban. People had been warned about the wind. Almost nobody had told them what a storm surge would look like. Families climbed into their attics to escape flooding. The surge followed them there. The wind did not kill most of Typhoon Haiyan's 6,300 victims. The sea did.
Within 24 hours, 80% of Tacloban had been destroyed. Over four million people were displaced across the Visayas islands. Economic damage reached $12 billion. Haiyan was not just a meteorological event — it was the product of warm tropical oceans, a vulnerable coastline, poverty-built housing, and a population that had never been told that the sea, not the sky, was the most dangerous part of the storm.
Understanding weather hazards means understanding not just how storms form, but why some storms become catastrophes and others do not. The physics of the atmosphere is only half the story.