NOVA
Season 41 Episode 12 - Killer Typhoon
It was the strongest cyclone to hit land in recorded history. On November 8, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, whipping the low-lying and densely-populated islands with 200 mph winds and sending a two-story-high storm surge flooding into homes, schools, and hospitals. It wiped villages off the map and devastated cities, including the hard-hit provincial capital Tacloban. Estimates count more than 5,000 dead and millions homeless. What made Haiyan so destructive? Meteorologists charged with tracking Pacific storms reveal why the Pacific is such fertile ground for cyclones, and NOVA’s film crew documents how conditions dramatically deteriorated in the storm’s aftermath, as impassable roads and shuttered gas stations paralyzed the critical relief effort, leaving food, water, and medicine to pile up at the airport. Disaster preparedness experts scramble to understand why the Philippines was so vulnerable. As climate change and sea level rise threaten millions of the world’s most impoverished people with stronger, and perhaps more frequent, storms, how can we prepare for the next monster typhoon?
Episodes in Season 41
Ground Zero Supertower
55 min
Megastorm Aftermath
55 min
Making Stuff Faster
55 min
Making Stuff Wilder
55 min
Making Stuff Colder
55 min
Making Stuff Safer
55 min
Cold Case JFK
55 min
At the Edge of Space
55 min
Asteroid: Doomsday or Payday?
55 min
Alien Planets Revealed
55 min
Zeppelin Terror Attack
55 min
Killer Typhoon
55 min
Ghosts of Murdered Kings
55 min
Roman Catacomb Mystery
55 min
Great Cathedral Mystery
55 min
Wild Predator Invasion
55 min
Inside Animal Minds: Bird Genius
55 min
Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses
55 min
Inside Animal Minds: Who's the Smartest?
55 min
Why Sharks Attack
55 min
Escape From Nazi Alcatraz
55 min
D-Day's Sunken Secrets
55 min