Typhoon Angela

Philippines–Vietnam, October 25–November 6, 1995 

At the time said by the Philippine Weather Bureau to have been the most severe supertyphoon to have passed over Luzon Island since 1987, Angela delivered sustained 141-MPH (227-km/h) winds, 10-inch (254-mm) precipitation counts, and an 11-foot (4–m) storm surge to the central and northern provinces of the Philippines—and to the northeastern coast of Vietnam—between November 2 and 6, 1995. With a central barometric pressure of 27.25 inches (922 mb) at landfall in the Philippines, Angela demolished more than 15,000 buildings, left some 300,000 people homeless and claimed an estimated 740 lives in 25 of Manila’s surrounding provinces. Before breaking apart over central Vietnam on the evening of November 6, Angela’s 106-MPH, (171-km/h) winds and six-inch (152.4- mm) downpours caused an additional 20 deaths in that nation, making it one of the deadliest tropical

cyclones to have menaced southeastern Asia in recent memory.

The 27th tropical cyclone of a rigorously active typhoon season (one which had seen the Philippines affected by no fewer than 13 typhoons and tropical storms since April), Angela originated over the subequatorial waters of the western North Pacific Ocean approximately 350 miles (563 km) southeast of Guam on the afternoon of October 25, 1995. Steadily sapping the ocean’s surface of its heat and evaporative moisture, the budding tropical depression fitfully churned west-northwest at 15 MPH (24 km/h) before developing into a powerful tropical storm on the morning of October 28 and into a minimal Category 1 typhoon with a central pressure of 29.02 inches (984 mb) by the late-afternoon hours of October 30. Maximum sustained winds within Angela’s eyewall now measured 80 MPH (129 km/h). After following a northwesterly trajectory until nightfall on October 31, Angela abruptly swung southward and then a few hours later to the west, its rain bands further deepening as it spiraled toward the low-lying cities and towns of the Bicol region on the southeast leg of Luzon Island.

Well acquainted with the archipelago’s extensive history of tropical cyclone activity, Filipino authorities spent the morning of November 1 moving the residents of vulnerable shoreline communities to inland storm shelters in preparation for Angela’s predicted arrival at noon the following day. As the typhoon inexorably strengthened, its central pressure continuing to drop and its sustained wind speeds exceeding 110 MPH (177 km/h), 135,000 people in the provinces of Catanduanes and Camarines were loaded onto buses and into cars and driven to government shelters further inland.

Whirring around a central pressure of 27.25 inches (922 mb) at landfall near the port town of Bicol shortly after noon on November 2, 1995, Angela’s sustained, 130-MPH (209-km/h) winds, 168-MPH (270-km/h) gusts, and flooding rains devastated much of central Luzon Island. In Manila, Angela’s 125-MPH (201-km/h) winds caused skyscrapers to sway and toppled a large billboard onto a nearby garage, crushing eight buses and two cars. On Catanduanes Island, where Angela’s fury was felt the hardest, the governor stated to reporters that, “The winds are so powerful that people in tall buildings

here feel they are being hit by an earthquake.” In the town of Mabolo, 180 miles (290 km) southeast of Manila, Angela’s 9-inch (229-mm) precipitation counts turned streets into waist-deep mires that kept several thousand people from their houses for nearly a week. In neighboring Sariayain, a four-lane highway was swept away by a landslide, and more than 5,000 buildings in surrounding villages collapsed.