a Katrina for the Philippine Islands

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=527&tstamp=200609

Typhoon Xangsane, potentially the most dangerous tropical cyclone to affect the world this year, is battering the Philippine Islands today with Category 4 winds. Xangsane was a mere tropical storm yesterday, and was expected to hit the Philippines as a tropical storm or weak Category 1 typhoon at worst. Xangsane confounded the experts and put on a remarkable intensification spurt that brought it from tropical storm strength to a Category 4 typhoon in just 24 hours. The intensification was not expected, since the typhoon's circulation hugged the coast for much of this period

We're lucky the El Nina is decreasing the number and strength of hurricanes in the Atlantic. Unfortunately for Pacific nations, and for Mexico, the El Nina has been causing an increase there. Although there was the weird phenonmenon a few weeks ago of the super typhoon that traveled across the Pacific and circles around to pound Alaska>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_sc/hurricane_report;_ylt=ApckR92pfPjNpK6AxmokzS0PLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday.

It is such a routine thing for the Bush administration to block or alter scientific findings it doesn't like, I almost didn't bother to put this in my blog.