Typhoon Patsy, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yoling, was the twenty-seventh named storm, twelfth typhoon, and seventh super typhoon of the

1970 Pacific typhoon season The 1970 Pacific typhoon season has no official bounds; it ran year-round in 1970, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between June and December. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year whe ...

. On November 14, 1970, a tropical disturbance organized sufficiently to be designated a tropical depression. A steady intensification carried Tropical Storm Patsy's windspeeds up to 155 mph (250 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 918 mbar. It made landfall in

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

with sustained winds of 130 mph (210 km/h) on November 19. After emerging in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...

, Patsy remained at tropical storm strength. It struck

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

during its Civil War as a weak tropical storm on November 22. The 8-day-old cyclone dissipated shortly after its final landfall. US$80 million ($403 million in 2005) in damage was reported to have been caused by Patsy, though the total was likely higher. Deaths were officially reported to be 241, but an estimated 30 people unofficially died in Vietnam, raising the toll to 271+. An additional 351 people were reported missing. The total deaths and damage will likely never be known, as the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

was raging at the same time.

Meteorological history

A tropical disturbance was spotted south-southeast of Wake Island on November 10 close to the International Date Line and moved west. Warm waters and weakened shear allowed the storm to organize into Tropical Depression 27W on November 14 near the Marianas Islands. A strong ridge to its north forced it westward, where it upgraded to tropical storm status later on November 14, receiving the name Patsy. When Patsy was just barely above the threshold of tropical storm-strength, it slowed and passed just north of Saipan. Patsy continued to steadily intensify, reaching typhoon strength on November 16, 200 miles (322 km) northwest of Guam. The typhoon peaked at 155 mph (250 km/h) on November 18. Its inflow became disrupted by the Philippines to its west, and Patsy hit Luzon on November 19 with winds of 130 mph (210 km/h), making it the 3rd strong typhoon to strike the island since September and made a direct hit over the National Capital Region of Metro Manila, then known as the Greater Manila area, catching many offguard. After crossing the Philippines and weakening to a Category 2, Patsy traversed the

, where cooler waters kept the system from strengthening. This caused the cyclone to continue a weakening trend until it was downgraded to a tropical storm on November 20. On November 22, Patsy struck Vietnam as a 45 mph (70 km/h) tropical storm, and dissipated soon after.

Impact

Patsy killed 262 people, injured 1,756, with another 351nah7300.tmp
missing. Damage totals came in at United States dollar, US$80 million (US$403 million in 2005), mostly in the Philippines.

Philippines

Typhoon Patsy was one of the deadliest typhoons to strike the Philippines in its history. 106 people were killed (with 351 others missing) on the island, and 135 people were killed at sea from shipping failures. The ''USS President Taft'' was separated from its anchorage and collided with the ''Alikimon'', a Greek vessel, while in Manila Bay. Another two ships were blown ashore in the Bay. On land, 31,380 of the refugees' homes were either destroyed or damaged. The mass destruction caused in the Metro Manila National Capital Region, then known as the Greater Manila area, mainly by many being caught almost totally unprepared, destroyed many power lines and well into the next month, where many areas in the metropolis still waiting for electric power to be restored.

Records

Patsy was the deadliest tropical cyclone to strike Manila since the establishment of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, Philippine Weather Bureau in 1865 until 2009 when Typhoon Ketsana, Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) affected the Philippine capital Manila, along with nearby provinces.

References

External links

JTWC Report

Retired Philippine typhoon names {{DEFAULTSORT:Patsy (1970) 1970 Pacific typhoon season Typhoons in Vietnam 1970 in Vietnam, Typhoon Patsy Typhoons