A typhoon powered through the Philippines and then Southern China.

At least 87 people are dead and 27 Vietnamese fishermen are missing. And South China, and Guangdong and Fujian provinces, managed to evacuate a total of 1 million people to safety.

Stories I'm reading don't mention gridlock or failures during the evacuation process. Western news sources report that China says just over 1 million people were moved to safety -- that thousands of people evacuated from fishing boats and low-lying areas were staying with relatives in tents, or in schools and government warehouses. The people were taken care of.

The main point in news stories is the damage Typhoon Chanchu has done, and where it's headed next. I'm sure the evacuation wasn't complete smooth sailing, but it appears smoother than what happened as word of Hurricane Rita's arrival spread.

Hurricane Katrina came in late August, did her damage and left us destroyed. So those anywhere near the wrath of September's Hurricane Rita were scared.

And us media folk probably didn't help. The media, arguably, could be blamed for scaring non-coastal residents and Houston residents in non-flood-prone areas into thinking their evacuations were mandatory.

Coastal communities in South China were just hit by a typhoon with winds up to 106mph. That's not at the same magnitude as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which were 175mph and 180mph, respectively, at their peaks. But does the force matter so much in terms of the human element if you've moved your people to safe places before the storm hits land?

It appears, at least right now, that the Chinese government got its people to safety in a timely, organized manner. So why can't we do that? I don't pretend to know how stressful it is in a situation like that, but disasters aren't a new thing. They happen all the time ... so shouldn't we handle that stuff better by now?