Typhoon Haiyan

[i am bob]

Good luck to all and godspeed!

Sent by Gaseous Monkeys using tin cans, a very long string and Tapatalk...

[Fred & Mimi]

The wind is blowing strongly here in Argao and it's only the start. We got upgraded to signal 3 so time to become concerned!!!

[OldUgly&Cranky]

My friend in ormoc is in the eye of the typhoon last communication i seen on fb was 7 hours ago decided to check on this website

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/350304-ormoc-city-tolosa-dulag-power-outages-in-leyte-after-typhoon-yolanda-hits/

 

Dulag, Tolosa, and Ormoc City in Leyte Province have been hit by power outages and have sustained damage after Typhoon Yolanda made landfall in the Philippines.

The typhoon hit Guiuan around 4:40 a.m. before crossing the Leyte Gulf and making a second landfall around Dulag and Tolosa, the state weather bureau said at 7 a.m.

Power is out across much of the area in Leyte that has been hit. A number 4 public storm signal was given earlier for Leyte and southern Leyte.

And Ormic could be hit by waves as high as 17 feet, with the peak occurring at 2 p.m., the bureau said. 

Winds were measured up to 195 miles per hour and gusts of up to 235 miles per hour, and heavy damage was being sustained, though the extent of the damage is not yet known.

Mike Besa, a photographer in the Philippines, tweeted: “Eye of the storm hit Ormoc, Leyte at 8. It looks really bad there now. Roofs are flying.”

Gregorio Larrazabal, a lawyer, added: “No more power and signal for mobile phones in Ormoc City and other areas in Leyte.”

Jerome Casolari, who posted photos of the damaged Ormoc City Terminal on Facebook, said: “My home town Ormoc City was severely damage by this super typhoon Yolanda… no communication from my family.”

“We are fearful because there is talk that the sea will rise,” Feliza, an elementary school teacher in Southern Leyte province, told a local radio station, reported Reuters.

“We can feel the powerful winds, our school is now packed with evacuees. Trees in coastal areas have already fallen.”

Story developing; check back for updates

 

 

be safe my EVERYONE !!! 

 

O-U-C :(

Edited November 8, 2013 by OldUgly&Cranky

[Call me bubba]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/07/philippines-typhoon/3465779/

 

Guys, those of here may be witness to the largest recorded storm in recorded world history.  Do not, repeat Do Not, spit into the wind! :hystery:

 

thanks for the link and now here is the story(as sometimes the link/story disappears)

A massive typhoon packing winds approaching 200 mph and called one of the most powerful storms ever recorded blasted into the Philippines on Friday.

Forecasters warned of potentially catastrophic damage.

Trees were down, power was out in parts of the country, there was widespread flooding and communication with the hardest-hit areas was knocked out.

Super Typhoon Haiyan made morning landfall at Guiuan, a small city in Samar province in the eastern Philippines. The U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said maximum sustained winds were 195 mph,

with gusts to 235 mph.

It reached the fragile island chain as the most powerful typhoon or hurricane in recorded history, based on wind speed measurements from satellites, says meteorologist Jeff Masters of Weather Underground.

""There aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind,'' Masters said.

Authorities in Guiuan could not be reached for word of any deaths or damage, regional civil defense chief Rey Gozon told DZBB radio.

Forecaster Mario Palafox with the nation's weather bureau said it had lost contact with its staff in the landfall area.

"This is really a wallop,'' Southern Leyte Gov. Roger Mercado said on ABS-CBN television. "All roads are impassable due to fallen trees."

A reporter for the network in the Tacloban city was drenched in the pounding rain and said he was wearing a helmet as protection against flying debris.

Visibility was so poor that only his silhouette could be seen through the driving rain and water.

Television images showed a street under knee-deep floodwater carrying debris.

Tin sheets ripped from roofs were flying above the street.

Officials in Cebu province have shut down electric service to the northern part of the province to avoid electrocutions in case power pylons are toppled, said assistant regional civil defense chief Flor Gaviola.

Thousands of people evacuated villages in the central Philippines as Haiyan took aim the region, which was devastated by an earthquake last month.

No Atlantic or eastern Pacific hurricane has ever been stronger than Haiyan

(typhoons are the same type of storms as hurricanes).

 

About 10 million people live on the central Philippine islands and are most at risk from a direct strike from Haiyan.

The latest forecast track shows Haiyan passing near Tacloban, a city of about 250,000, and Cebu, a city of nearly 1 million, reports meteorologist Eric Holthaus of Quartz magazine.

The storm was not expected to directly hit Manila, which is farther north. Predictions for Manila were for winds of up to 37 mph and rain.

TYPHOON: Why everyone is talking about it

SUPER TYPHOON: Gusts estimated as high as 230 mph

President Benigno Aquino III warned people to leave high-risk areas,

including 100 coastal communities where forecasters said the storm surge could reach up to 23 feet. He urged seafarers to stay in port.

"No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be united," he said in a televised address.

Haiyan is the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2013, a nation that typically gets hit by more typhoons than any other country in the world, usually about six or seven each year.

Filipino residents sleep on the floor at a gymnasium turned into an evacuation center in Sorsogon City, Bicol region, Philippines, on Nov. 7

Haiyan is the Chinese word for petrel, a type of bird that lives over the open sea and returns to land only for breeding. The storm is known as Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines.

Governors and mayors supervised the evacuation of landslide- and flood-prone communities in several provinces where the typhoon is expected to pass, said Eduardo del Rosario, head of the government's main disaster-response agency. School classes and plane flights were canceled in many areas.

Aquino ordered officials to aim for zero casualties.

Edgardo Chatto, governor of Bohol island province in the central Philippines,

where an earthquake in October killed more than 200 people, said soldiers, police and rescue units were helping displaced residents, including thousands staying in small tents, move to shelters.

Bohol is not forecast to receive a direct hit but is expected to be battered by strong winds and rain, government forecaster Jori Loiz said.

"My worst fear is that the eye of this typhoon will hit us. I hope we will be spared," Chatto told the Associated Press by telephone.

After roaring across the Philippines, Haiyan is expected to move into the South China Sea and eventually hit Vietnam and Laos over the weekend, still as a typhoon.

Contributing: William M. Welch in Los Angeles; The Associated Press

[Call me bubba]

althou a few hours old, it lists the storm signal areas and some safety tips

 

Edited November 8, 2013 by Pittman apartments Sgn

[Medic Mike]

Super Typhoon Haiyan Slams Into Philippines, Millions Flee

By MANUEL MOGATO & ROSEMARIE FRANCISCO / REUTERS WRITERS| Friday, November 8, 2013 |

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Super Typhoon Haiyan is seen approaching the Philippines in this Japan Meteorological Agency handout image taken at 0630 GMT (0130 EST) on Nov. 7, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

 

MANILA — The strongest typhoon in the world this year and possibly the most powerful ever to hit land battered the central Philippines on Friday, forcing millions of people to flee to safer ground, cutting power lines and blowing apart houses.

Haiyan, a category-5 super typhoon, bore down on the northern tip of Cebu Province, a popular tourist destination with the country’s second-largest city, after lashing the islands of Leyte and Samar with 275 kph (170 mph) wind gusts and 5-6 meter (15-19 ft) waves.

Authorities warned more than 12 million people were at risk, including residents of Cebu City, home to around 2.5 million people, and areas still reeling from a deadly 2011 storm and a 7.1-magnitude quake last month.

“The super typhoon likely made landfall with winds near 195 mph [313 kph]. This makes Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone [typhoon] on record to make landfall,” said Jeff Masters, a hurricane expert and director of meteorology at US-based Weather Underground.

Typhoons and cyclones of that magnitude can blow apart storm-proof shelters due to the huge pressure they create, which can suck walls out and blow roofs off buildings.

About a million people had taken shelter in more than 20 provinces, after Philippine President Benigno Aquino appealed to people in Haiyan’s path to evacuate from danger spots, such as river banks, coastal villages and mountain slopes.

“Our school is now packed with evacuees,” an elementary school teacher in Southern Leyte who only gave her name as Feliza told a radio station. Leyte and Southern Leyte are about 630 km (390 miles) southeast of the capital Manila.

The storm’s path includes the resort island of Boracay and other holiday destinations.

“Please do not underestimate this typhoon. It is very powerful. We can feel each gust,” Roger Mercado, governor of Southern Leyte province, adjacent to Leyte, told DZBB radio. “We lost power and all roads are impassable because of fallen trees. We just have to pray.”

In Samar, contact was lost with some towns and villages, said local officials. More than 41,000 people have been evacuated in the province, one of the country’s poorest.

“The whole province has no power,” Samar Governor Sharee Tan told Reuters by telephone. Fallen trees, toppled electric posts and other debris blocked roads, she added.

On Bantayan Island, off Cebu’s northern coast, one person was missing and another pinned beneath a tree, said Neil Sanchez, head of Cebu’s provincial disaster agency.

“We still don’t know if the person was just injured or a fatality because the phone lines were cut,” he said.

Authorities halted ferry services and fishing operations, while nearly 200 local flights had been suspended. Commuter bus services were also stopped as the storm dumped torrential rain, ripped iron roofs off houses and snapped trees.

Twenty navy ships, three C-130 air force cargo planes and 32 military helicopters and aircraft were on standby. An army spokesman on southern Mindanao island said a man was killed in a shelter area when he was electrocuted by a toppled power line.

Schools, offices and shops in the central Philippines were closed, with hospitals, soldiers and emergency workers preparing for rescue operations.

The state weather bureau said Haiyan was expected to exit the Philippines on Saturday and move towards the South China Sea, where it could become even stronger and threaten Vietnam or China.

The world’s strongest recorded typhoon, cyclone or hurricane to previously make landfall was Hurricane Camille in 1969, which hit Mississippi with 190 mph winds, said Weather Underground’s Masters.

An average of 20 typhoons slam into the Philippines every year. In 2011, typhoon Washi killed 1,200 people, displaced 300,000 and destroyed more than 10,000 homes. Haiyan is the 24th such storm to batter the Philippines this year.

Typhoon Bopha last year flattened three coastal towns on the southern island of Mindanao, killing 1,100 people and causing damage estimated at US$1.04 billion.

In September, category-5 typhoon Usagi, with winds gusting of up to 240 kph (149 mph), battered the northern island of Batanes before causing damage in southern China.

Additional reporting by Karen Lema and Erik dela Cruz.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Medic Mike

[Medic Mike]

 

<sub>Massive typhoon hits PhilippinesMore than 100,000 people take shelter in evacuation centers

Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/national/-massive-typhoon-hits-philippines/-/9848944/22845146/-/m230k4z/-/index.html#ixzz2k2p4Sfr9</sub>

 

(CNN) —With 25 million people in its path, Super Typhoon Haiyan -- one of the strongest storms recorded on the planet -- smashed into the Philippines on Friday morning.

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As the storm plowed across the cluster of islands in the heart of the country, casualties were reported, more than 100,000 people took shelter in evacuation centers and hundreds of flights were canceled.

The storm brought tremendously powerful winds roaring ashore as it made landfall in the province of Eastern Visayas, disrupting communications with a major city in its path.

With sustained winds of 315 kph (195 mph) and gusts as strong as 380 kph (235 mph), Haiyan was probably the strongest tropical cyclone to hit land anywhere in the world in recorded history. It will take further analysis after the storm passes to establish whether it is a record.

As the monster storm spun toward the Philippines on Thursday, President Benigno S. Aquino III warned the nation that it faced a "calamity."

Category 5 strength

Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda, appeared to retain much of its terrifying force as it moved west over the country, with sustained winds of 295 kph, gusts as strong as 360 kph. Haiyan's wind strength makes it equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.

Video footage from on the ground in the Philippines showed howling winds bending palm trees and whipping debris down deserted streets.

Gov. Roger Mercado of Southern Leyte, a province in Eastern Visayas, said Friday morning that "all roads" were impassable because of fallen trees.

He said it was too soon to gauge the level of devastation caused by Haiyan.

"We don't know the extent of the damage," Mercaod said. "We are trying to estimate this. We are prepared, but this is really a wallop."

The typhoon was forecast to churn across the central Philippines during Friday and part of Saturday before exiting into the South China Sea.

The storm is expected to weaken slightly as it moves across land, but forecasters predict that it will maintain super typhoon intensity throughout its passage over the islands.

A super typhoon has surface winds that sustain speeds of more than 240 kph for at least a minute, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Haiyan is so large in diameter that clouds from it are affecting two-thirds of the country, which stretches more than 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles). Tropical-storm-force winds are extending 240 kilometers from the typhoon's center.

'Very real danger'

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said Friday that one person had been confirmed dead as a result of the storm in the eastern province of Surigao del Sur.

Authorities in Cebu said they were unable to establish whether a woman who was hit by a falling coconut tree in the north of the province was dead or injured. Neil Sanchez, a provincial disaster management official, said authorities had lost contact with the town where the incident happened.

On Thursday morning, a day before the storm arrived, a 1-year-old child and another person died after they were hit by debris from a tornado in the southern province of Cotabato, authorities said. It was unclear whether the tornado was related to the approaching typhoon.

Ahead of the typhoon's arrival, thousands of people had been relocated away from particularly vulnerable areas in Tacloban City, which is situated 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 flooded with water and debris.

In a speech Thursday, Aquino warned residents of the "calamity our countrymen will face in these coming days."

"Let me repeat myself: 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 have aircraft ready to respond, and officials have placed relief supplies in the areas that are expected to get hit, Aquino said.

"The effects of this storm can be eased through solidarity," he said.

Earthquake survivors vulnerable

Authorities have warned dozens of provinces across the country to be prepared for possible flash floods and landslides. About 125,000 people nationwide were moved to evacuation centers

Some of the most vulnerable people are those living in temporary shelters on the central Philippine island of Bohol.

Last month, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit the island, which lies close to the typhoon's predicted path. The quake killed at least 222 people, injured nearly 1,000 and displaced about 350,000, according to authorities.

"This has been a quake hit area, for the past three weeks people are still experiencing aftershocks," said Aaron Aspi, a communications specialist in Bohol for the charity World Vision. "and at the same time these rains are giving them a really hard time."

"Most of them are advised to evacuate to sturdy structures," he said. "But there are a few thousand displaced families in quake hit areas that are still staying in makeshift tents and now that the super typhoon is here it is really heart breaking to see them struggling."

Aspi said many peoples' tents are drenched but they still too afraid to relocate to enclosed structures because of the aftershocks.

Beach resort threatened

Another island in the storm's likely trajectory is the popular beach resort of Boracay. Some tourists there were cutting their vacations short to get away from the possible danger.

Ross Evans, an aviation professional from Florida, said there was "a definite urgency and panic" among the long lines of holidaymakers waiting for boats to get off Boracay on Thursday.

Speaking by phone before his flight to Manila took off, he said he felt "horrible" for those who may end up stuck in the storm's path.

Evans said he and his travel companions, who are leaving the Philippines two days earlier than planned, "feel very fortunate to have the ability to make arrangements to be safe."

Situated 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 archipelagic nation every year, and several of those cause serious damage.

In December, Typhoon Bopha wreaked widespread devastation on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. 

 

Edited November 8, 2013 by Medic Mike

[Medic Mike]

Three dead as intense typhoon pounds Philippines Friday, 08 November 2013

 

 

A resident ® walks past high waves pounding the sea wall amidst strong winds as Typhoon Haiyan hit the city of Legaspi, Albay province.

 

 

MANILA: One of the most intense typhoons on record whipped the Philippines Friday, killing three people and terrifying millions as monster winds tore roofs off buildings and giant waves washed away flimsy homes.

 

Super Typhoon Haiyan smashed into coastal communities on the central island of Samar, about 600 kilometres southeast of Manila, before dawn on Friday with maximum sustained winds of about 315 kilometres an hour.

 

"We've had reports of uprooted trees, very strong winds and houses made of light materials being damaged," Philippine Red Cross chief Gwendolyn Pang told AFP on Friday afternoon as Haiyan swept across the archipelago's central and southern islands.

 

The government said three people had been confirmed killed and another man was missing after he fell off a gangplank in the central port of Cebu.

 

But the death toll was expected to rise, with authorities unable to immediately contact the worst affected areas and Haiyan only expected to leave the Philippines in the evening.

 

"The winds were so strong that they flattened all the banana plants around the house," university student Jessa Aljibe, 19, told AFP by telephone from the Samar city of Borongan shortly after Haiyan made landfall.

 

All telephone contact to the island was later lost as the typhoon moved inland.

 

"We have put rescue teams and equipment at different places, but at the moment we can't really do much because of the heavy rain and strong winds. There is no power," said Pang, the Red Cross official.

 

An average of 20 major storms or typhoons, many of them deadly, batter the Philippines each year. 

 

The developing country is particularly vulnerable because it is often the first major landmass for the storms after they build over the Pacific Ocean.

 

The Philippines suffered the world's strongest storm of 2012, when Typhoon Bopha left about 2,000 people dead or missing on the southern island of Mindanao.

 

But Haiyan's wind strength made it one of the four most powerful typhoons ever recorded in the world, and the most intense to have made landfall, according to Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at US-based Weather Underground.

 

Haiyan generated wind gusts of 379 kilometres an hour on Friday morning, according to the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

 

Masters said the previous record for the strongest typhoon to make landfall was Hurricane Camille, which hit Mississippi in the United States with sustained winds of 190 miles an hour in 1969.

 

The US expert said he expected the damage in Guiuan, a fishing town of about 40,000 people that was the first to be hit on Friday, to be "catastrophic".

 

Communication lines with Guiuan remained cut off in the afternoon, and the civil defence office said it was unable to give an assessment of the damage there.

 

In Tacloban, a nearby city of more than 200,000 people, corrugated iron sheets were ripped off roofs and floated with the wind before crashing into buildings, according to video footage taken by a resident.

 

Flash floods also turned Tacloban's streets into rivers, while a photo from an ABS-CBN television reporter showed six bamboo houses washed away along a beach more than 200 kilometres to the south.

 

      

Preparing for disaster

      
 

President Benigno Aquino on Thursday had warned his compatriots to make all possible preparations for Haiyan.

"To our local officials, your constituents are facing a serious peril. Let us do all we can while Haiyan has not yet hit land," he said in a nationally televised address.

 

More than 125,000 people in the most vulnerable areas had been moved to evacuation centres before Haiyan hit, according to the national disaster management council, and millions of others huddled in their homes.

 

Authorities said schools in the storm's path were closed, ferry services suspended and flights cancelled.

 

In the capital Manila, which was on the northern edge of the typhoon's path, many schools were closed amid forecasts of heavy rain.

 

One particularly vulnerable area in Haiyan's path was the central island of Bohol, the epicentre of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake last month that killed 222 people.

 

At least 5,000 survivors were still living in tents on Bohol, and they were moved to schools that had been turned into evacuation centres.

 

The Philippine government and some scientists have said climate change may be increasing the ferocity and frequency of storms.

 

Masters said warm Pacific waters were an important reason for the strength of Haiyan. 

 

But said it was premature to blame climate change based on the scanty historical data available. (AFP)

 

Edited November 8, 2013 by Medic Mike

[Medic Mike]

Year's strongest typhoon blasts Philippines

 

By OLIVER TEVES and TERESA CEROJANO Associated Press

Posted:   11/08/2013 03:00:04 AM EST

 

 

Click photo to enlarge

Residents clear the road after a tree was toppled by strong... ((AP Photo/Chester Baldicantos))

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MANILA, Philippines—The strongest typhoon this year slammed into the Philippines on Friday, setting off landslides, knocking out power in several provinces and cutting communications in the country's central region of island provinces. Four people died.

Telephone lines appeared down as it was difficult to get through to the landfall site 650 kilometers (405 miles) southeast of Manila where Typhoon Haiyan—one of the strongest typhoons ever—slammed into the southern tip of Samar island before barreling on to Leyte Island.

Two people were electrocuted in storm-related accidents, one person was killed by a fallen tree and another was struck by lightning, official reports said.

 

Close to 720,000 people had been evacuated from towns and villages in the typhoon's path across the central Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said. Among them were thousands of residents of Bohol who had been camped in tents and other makeshift shelters after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the island province last month.

Southern Leyte Gov. Roger Mercado said 31,000 people were evacuated in his landslide-prone mountainous province before the super typhoon struck, knocking out power, setting off small landslides that blocked roads in rural areas, uprooting trees and ripping roofs off houses around his residence.

The dense clouds and heavy rains made the day seem almost as dark as night, he said.

"When you're faced with such a scenario, you can only pray, and pray and pray," Mercado told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that his town mayors have not called in to report any major damage.

"I hope that means they were spared and not the other way around," he said. "My worst fear is there will be many massive loss of lives and property."

Television images from Tacloban city on Leyte Island showed a street under knee-deep floodwater carrying debris that had been blown down by the fierce winds. Tin roofing sheets ripped from buildings were flying above the street.

Visibility was so poor that only the silhouette of a local reporter could be seen through the driving rain.

Weather officials said that Haiyan had sustained winds at 235 kilometers (147 miles) per hour, with gusts of 275 kph (170 mph) when it made landfall. That makes it the strongest typhoon this year, said Aldczar Aurelio of the government's weather bureau.

 

Gener Quitlong, another weather forecaster, said the typhoon was not losing much of its strength because there is no large land mass to slow it down since the region is comprised of islands with no tall mountains.

The typhoon—the 24th serious storm to hit the Philippines this year—is forecast to blow toward the South China Sea on Saturday, heading toward Vietnam.

Jeff Masters, a former hurricane meteorologist who is meteorology director at the private firm Weather Underground, said the storm had been poised to be the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded at landfall. He warned of "catastrophic damage."

But he said the Philippines might get a small break because the storm is so fast moving that flooding from heavy rains—usually the cause of most deaths from typhoons in the Philippines—may not be as bad.

As it approached the Philippines, the storm was one of the strongest on record.

The U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said shortly before the typhoon made landfall that its maximum sustained winds were 314 kilometers per hour (195 mph), with gusts up to 379 kilometers per hour (235 mph). Those measurements are different than local weather data because the U.S. Navy center measures the average wind speed for 1 minute while local forecasters measure average for 10 minutes.

Hurricane Camille, a 1969 storm, had wind speeds that reached 305 kph (190 mph) at landfall in the United States, Masters said.

Officials in Cebu province have shut down electric service to the northern part of the province to avoid electrocutions in case power pylons are toppled, said assistant regional civil defense chief Flor Gaviola.  

President Benigno Aquino III assured the public of war-like preparations, with three C-130 air force cargo planes and 32 military helicopters and planes on standby, along with 20 navy ships.

 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2013 by Medic Mike

[Medic Mike]

World’s most powerful typhoon kills at least three and forces one million to flee homes

 

The strongest typhoon in the world this year and possibly the most powerful ever to hit land battered the Philippines today, killing at least three people and forcing more than a million to flee.

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Haiyan, a category-5 super typhoon, scoured the northern tip of Cebu Province and headed west towards Boracay island, both of them tourist destinations, after lashing the central islands of Leyte and Samar with 275kmh wind gusts and 5-6 metre  waves.

Three people were killed and seven injured, national disaster agency spokesman Rey Balido told a news briefing at the main army base in Manila. The death toll could rise as reports come in from stricken areas.

Power and communications in the three large island provinces of Samar, Leyte and Bohol were almost completely down but the government and telephone service providers promised to restore them within 24 hours.

Authorities warned that more than 12 million people were at risk, including residents of Cebu City, which has a population of about 2.5 million, and areas still reeling from a deadly 2011 storm and a 7.2-magnitude quake last month.

"The super typhoon likely made landfall with winds near 300kmh. This makes Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall," said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at US-based Weather Underground.

Typhoons and cyclones of that magnitude can blow apart storm shelters with the pressure they create, which can suck walls out and blow roofs off buildings.

 

"Power is off all across the island and the streets are deserted," said

Lionel Dosdosa, an International Organisation for Migration coordinator on Bohol island, the epicentre of an October 15 earthquake that killed 222 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, said power was off and streets were deserted.

"It's dark and gloomy, alternating between drizzle and heavy rain," he said.

About a million people took shelter in 29 provinces, after President Benigno Aquino appealed to people in Haiyan's path to leave vulnerable areas, such as along river banks, coastal villages and mountain slopes.

"Our school is now packed with evacuees," an elementary school teacher in Southern Leyte who only gave her name as Feliza told a radio station. Leyte and Southern Leyte are about 630km southeast of Manila.

Roger Mercado, governor of Southern Leyte province, said no one should underestimate the storm.

"It is very powerful," Mercado told DZBB radio. "We lost power and all roads are impassable because of fallen trees. We just have to pray."

 

In Samar province, links with some towns and villages had been cut, officials said.

"The whole province has no power," Samar Governor Sharee Tan said. Fallen trees, toppled electric poles and other debris blocked roads, she said.

Authorities suspended ferry services and fishing and shut 13 airports. Nearly 450 domestic and eight international flights were suspended.

Schools, offices and shops in the central Philippines were closed, with hospitals, soldiers and emergency workers preparing for rescue operations. Twenty navy ships and various military aircraft including three C-130 cargo planes and helicopters were on standby.

The state weather bureau said Haiyan was expected to move past the Philippines tomorrow and out over the South China Sea, where it could become even stronger and threaten Vietnam or China.

The world's strongest recorded typhoon, cyclone or hurricane to make landfall was Hurricane Camille in 1969, which hit Mississippi with 305kmh winds, said Weather Underground's Masters.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year.

Last year, Typhoon Bopha flattened three coastal towns on Mindanao, killed 1,100 people and caused damage estimated at $1 billion.

Haiyan is the 24th such storm to hit the Philippines this year.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Medic Mike