Water is always looking for a place to go. If you live near water, at some time it is coming where you are and you can’t stop it.
If you live on an island, the water owns you for it surrounds you and you can’t get off that island once the water starts moving. You will get no help until a plane or ship can get there. If you are on the mainland, help can get to you much faster. You risk your life to live on an island where water rules, you don’t.
The article says, “The nation (the Philippines)is in the northwestern Pacific, right in the path of the world’s No. 1 typhoon generator, according to meteorologists. The archipelago’s exposed eastern seaboard often bears the brunt.”
That group of islands, being where they are, is a disaster waiting to happen over and over and over and this one was the worst that has ever happened.
I’ve lived in Hawaii twice and if ships stopped, Hawaii would stop. At least it’s not in the direct path of where typhoons start like the Philippines are.
Isn’t Japan in the northwest Pacific? The Philippines are in insular Southeast Asia.
It’s actually hard to tell in many of the photos if the damage was caused by the rapidly advancing storm surge (almost like a tsunami) or by the high winds. In both cases, pretty much everything is knocked flat and piled a meter or so high.
“You risk your life to live on an island where water rules, you don’t.”
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Not all islands are the same. I live on one of the 7,107 islands that make up the Philippines.
While I live on a beach, my municipality (town) is also home to the highest point on Cebu, Osmena peak (over 3000 ft high).
Many, if not most of the islands have very high ground, the highest going up to over 9000 ft.