| CNN | - |
(CNN)
-- Super Typhoon Haiyan -- perhaps the strongest storm ever -- plowed
across the central Philippines on Friday, leaving widespread
devastation.
on Haiyan, perhaps strongest ever, plows across Philippines
updated 12:52 PM EST, Fri November 8, 2013
Super Typhoon Haiyan makes landfall
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: "Around 20" people drown after storm surge, state news agency says, citing TV reports
- "This is really a wallop," says the governor of a typhoon-hit province
- The storm is one of the strongest ever observed
- People left homeless by a quake on Bohol Island are among the most vulnerable
It roared onto the
country's eastern island of Samar at 4:30 a.m., flooding streets and
knocking out power and communications in many areas of the region of
Eastern Visayas, and then continued its march, barreling into five other
Philippine islands as it moved across the archipelago.
At least three people were killed and seven hurt, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said Friday.
The state-run Philippines
News Agency, citing unconfirmed TV reports, said "around 20" people
drowned after a storm surge struck Friday morning in Palo, a town on the
island of Leyte, which abuts Samar.
"Most of the fatalities
sustained massive injuries in the head and upper part of the body,
indicative that strong waves dashed them against hard objects," it
reported, adding that nine of the dead were minors.
Experts predicted the casualty toll would soar once aid workers get to the hardest-hit areas.
About 125,000 people took refuge in evacuation centers, and hundreds of flights were canceled.
With sustained winds of
315 kph (195 mph) and gusts as strong as 380 kph (235 mph), Haiyan may
be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit land anywhere in recorded
history. It will take further analysis after the storm passes to
establish whether it is a record.
Its speed -- westward at
41 kph (25 mph) -- meant the worst was over quickly. But the damage was
still severe. "About 90% of the infrastructure and establishments were
heavily damaged," Gwendolyn Pang, the secretary general of the
Philippine National Red Cross, told CNNI.
About 25 areas were hit,
she said, adding that assessment teams were prepared to enter the
stricken areas as soon as conditions allowed.
But they cannot do it alone, she said: "We will be definitely needing more support for this one."
She said floodwater was as high as 10 feet in some areas.
Maryann Zamora, a field
communications specialist for the charity World Vision, said her
organization "has been working through so many disasters, so many
typhoons -- but this is quite different."
"This is the strongest I ever felt so far," she said by phone from the island of Cebu.
Category 5 strength
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Typhoon Haiyan one of the biggest ever
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Haiyan, known in the
Philippines as Yolanda, retained much of its force as it moved westward
with sustained winds of 295 kph (183 mph), which puts it well above the
252 kph (157 mph) threshold for a Category 5 hurricane, the highest
category on the Saffir--Simpson hurricane wind scale.
Video showed streets flooded with debris and sheets of metal flying through the air.
Gov. Roger Mercado of
Southern Leyte, a province in Eastern Visayas near the storm's path,
said Friday morning that fallen trees had made all roads impassable. "We
don't know the extent of the damage," he said. "We are trying to
estimate this. We are prepared, but this is really a wallop."
With sea travel suspended in many areas, more than 3,000 travelers were stranded in ports, the council said.
The typhoon was moving away from the Philippines early Saturday into the South China Sea toward Vietnam.
Meteorologists said it
was maintaining super typhoon intensity throughout its passage over the
Philippines. A super typhoon has surface winds that sustain speeds of
more than 240 kph (149 mph) for at least a minute, according to the U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Haiyan was so large in
diameter that, at one point, its clouds were affecting two-thirds of the
country, which stretches more than 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles).
Tropical storm-force winds extended 240 kilometers from the typhoon's
center.
'Very real danger'
Ahead of the typhoon's
arrival, thousands of people were moved from particularly vulnerable
areas in the city of Tacloban, which is in a coastal area of the region
that bore the initial brunt of the storm.
Communications with Tacloban, which has a population of around 200,000, were disrupted after the typhoon struck. Video aired by CNN affiliate ABS-CBN showed streets in the city filled with water and debris.
In a speech Thursday,
President Benigno S. Aquino III warned residents of the "calamity our
countrymen will face in these coming days."
"This is a very real
danger, and we can mitigate and lessen its effects if we use the
information available to prepare," he said.
Authorities had aircraft
ready to respond, and officials had placed relief supplies in the areas
that were expected to get hit, Aquino said.
"The effects of this storm can be eased through solidarity," he said.
Earthquake survivors vulnerable
Authorities warned
people in provinces across the country to prepare for possible flash
floods, landslides and a storm surge as high as 7 meters (23 feet).
About 125,000 people nationwide were moved to evacuation centers.
Among the most vulnerable were people living in tents on the central Philippine island of Bohol, where a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit last month, killing at least 222 people, injuring nearly 1,000 and displacing about 350,000, according to authorities.
On Friday, they got a second jolt -- this time from the typhoon's winds and rain, but they were spared a direct hit.
"For the past three
weeks, people are still experiencing aftershocks," said Aaron Aspi, a
communications specialist in Bohol for World Vision. "And at the same
time, these rains are giving them a really hard time."
Aspi said that despite
living in drenched tents, many people were afraid to move to sturdier
structures because of the aftershocks.
Beach resort threatened
Another island near the
storm's path was the popular beach resort of Boracay. Some tourists
there cut short vacations Thursday to get away from the possible danger.
In near an area of the Pacific Ocean where tropical cyclones form, the Philippines regularly suffers severe storm damage.
An average of 20 typhoons hit the nation every year.
In December, Typhoon
Bopha wreaked devastation on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
The storm, the most powerful to hit the country last year, is estimated
to have killed as many as 1,900 people.
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