premise: "The risk to human life from natural disasters in the Philippines has increased dramatically over the past generation," he said in a recent report.
  "From 1971 to 2000, natural disasters killed 34,000 people but from 1990 to 2000, natural disasters killed or disrupted the lives of 35 million people."
  Each year an average of 20 tropical storms sweep in from the Pacific, hammering the central or northern islands of the country.
  Sitting on the eadge of the "Pacific Ring of Fire," the Southeast Asian archipelago nation is also vulnerable to earthquakes, at least six a day, and volcanic erruptions from its 18 active volcanoes.
  It all makes for a deadly mix making the Philippines one of the most disaster-prone countries on earth, according to the International Red Cross.
  In a country where more than 50 percent of the population are living on less than two dollars a day, the human cost of such disasters is enormous.
  Senator Richard Gordon, who also heads the Philippine Red Cross, said that unless the cycle of poverty is tackled "these disasters will just go on repeating themselves."
   What caused 34,000 people to be killed from 1971 to 2000?
hypothesis: hammering the central or northern islands of the country