# Typhoon devastates Pingelap (c. 1775)

URL: https://allhistories.com/micronesia/timeline/1775-typhoon-devastates-pingelap
Location: Pingelap, Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia
Themes: main-event

A catastrophic typhoon struck Pingelap atoll in about 1775 and left only about 20 survivors, according to the Pingelap article. The ruler at the time, named in local tradition as Doahkaesa Mwanenihsed, is believed to have been a carrier of the genetic condition that later spread through the small surviving population. The Wikipedia article attributes the high prevalence of achromatopsia to a population bottleneck after the typhoon. It records that the condition appeared by the fourth generation, when 2.7 percent of the people were affected, and that the rate reached about 4.9 percent by the sixth generation and nearly 10 percent now, with about 30 percent unaffected carriers. Islanders call the condition maskun, glossed on the page as 'not see'. The atoll's pre-war population was around 1,000, and the atoll is now well known in medical genetics. The event shows how a single disaster could reshape a small atoll's population for centuries, a theme of Micronesian history. At this point in the timeline (c. 1775), no single ruler governed the islands (c. 2000 BCE – 1885); authority lay with island chiefs, clans and, on Pohnpei, the Saudeleur dynasty and then the Nahnmwarki, with a Tokosra on Kosrae and the sawei network centred on Yap.

## Why it matters
One of the best-documented founder effects in human genetics, the Pingelap typhoon shaped the population and public health of an eastern Caroline atoll for more than two centuries.

Ruler at the Time: [Prehistory, Austronesian settlement, Saudeleur and Nahnmwarki chiefdoms, Yapese sawei network, European contact and whaling (to 1885)](https://allhistories.com/micronesia/rulers/prehistory-austronesian-settlement-saudeleur-and-1)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Pingelap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingelap)
- [Wikipedia — Pohnpei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohnpei)