Wall Street Journal: An unhappy confluence of natural factors made Typhoon Haiyan one of the most ferocious tropical storms to make landfall in recorded history, creating the biggest storm surge since Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. in 2005.
Several factors gave the storm in the Philippines its devastating power--torrential rain, a landscape that funneled the water and intensified the surge, and powerful winds with gusts that matched the speed of a race car.
"There isn't any other known storm that's made landfall...