Impact
Billie skirted the Ryūkyū Islands before making landfall in Taiwan and again in eastern China, producing huge waves that drowned 41 fishermen and swimmers along the coast of Japan. A JTWC weather station in Miyakojima reported a barometric pressure of 962 millibars and winds of 51 mph (82 km/h). In Ishigakijima, a weather station reported winds of 109 mph (176 km/h) and a barometric pressure of 952 millibars.
Billie's second landfall was south of Taipei, Taiwan where a weather station reported 81 mph (130 km/h) winds. However, at the Taipei International Airport, the winds were at 40 mph (65 km/h) with gusts up to 75 mph (120 km/h). Billie's impact in Taiwan was destructive as the storm sank three ships and damaged several others and killed seven people, leaving eight others missing, injured 24 and left $2.6 million (1976 USD, $8.9 million 2005 USD) in damage.
The third and final landfall was in eastern China as a tropical storm which brought 70 mph (113 km/h) winds and heavy rain but there were no reports of deaths or damage reported. The name Billie was not retired after the 1976 Pacific typhoon season.
Read more about this topic: Typhoon Billie (1976)
Famous quotes containing the word impact:
“One can describe a landscape in many different words and sentences, but one would not normally cut up a picture of a landscape and rearrange it in different patterns in order to describe it in different ways. Because a photograph is not composed of discrete units strung out in a linear row of meaningful pieces, we do not understand it by looking at one element after another in a set sequence. The photograph is understood in one act of seeing; it is perceived in a gestalt.”
—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)