Typhoon Haiyan hits Philippines. Possibly (Confirmed) strongest storm in recorded history.

[Outlaw]

In the west we tend not to pay attention most of the time when natural disasters happen in other parts of the world but this is significant..

MANILA, Philippines — One of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded slammed into the Philippines early Friday, and one weather expert warned, “There will be catastrophic damage.”

The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center shortly before Typhoon Haiyan’s landfall said its maximum sustained winds were 314 kilometers per hour (195 mph), with gusts up to 379 kilometers per hour (235 mph).

“195-mile-per-hour winds, there aren’t too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind,” said Jeff Masters, a former hurricane meteorologist who is meteorology director at the private firm Weather Underground.

Masters said the storm had been poised to be the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded at landfall. He warned of catastrophic damage.

Local authorities reported having troubles reaching colleagues in the landfall area.

The local weather bureau had a lower reading on the storm’s power, saying its speed at landfall in Eastern Samar province’s Guiuan township had sustained winds at 235 kilometers (147 miles) per hour, with gusts of 275 kph (170 mph). The bureau takes measures based on longer periods of time.

Authorities in Guiuan could not immediately be reached for word of any deaths or damage, regional civil defense chief Rey Gozon told DZBB radio. Forecaster Mario Palafox with the national weather bureau said it had lost contact with its staff in the landfall area.

The storm was not expected to directly hit the flood-prone capital, Manila, further north.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said more than 125,000 people had been evacuated from towns and villages in the typhoon’s path.

Typhoon Haiyan’s wind strength at landfall had been expected to beat out Hurricane Camille, which was 305 kilometers per hour (190 mph) at landfall in the United States 1969, Masters said.

The only tiny bright side is that it’s a fast-moving storm, so flooding from heavy rain — which usually causes the most deaths from typhoons in the Philippines — may not be as bad, Masters said.

“The wind damage should be the most extreme in Phillipines history,” he said.

The storm later will be a threat to both Vietnam and Laos and is likely to be among the top five natural disasters for those two countries, Masters said. The storm is forecast to barrel through the Philippines’ central region Friday and Saturday before blowing toward the South China Sea over the weekend, heading toward Vietnam.

President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday warned people to leave high-risk areas, including 100 coastal communities where forecasters said the storm surge could reach up to 7 meters (23 feet). He urged seafarers to stay in port.

Aquino ordered officials to aim for zero casualties, a goal often not met in an archipelago lashed by about 20 tropical storms each year, most of them deadly and destructive. Haiyan is the 24th such storm to hit the Philippines this year.

The president also assured the public of war-like preparations: three C-130 air force cargo planes and 32 military helicopters and planes on standby, along with 20 navy ships.

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/ima...65805-6241.jpg

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...ba8_story.html

“It is the most powerful storm ever to make landfall,” Weather Channel lead meteorologist Michael Palmer told NBC News. “It is as strong a typhoon as you can get, basically.”

Palmer said gusts of 220 mph had been recorded. “That is the equivalent of EF4 tornado winds -- even EF5," he added. "You would not be able to stand up, it would knock you off your feet and blow you away. And it’s going to obliterate poorly constructed homes and outbuildings. Sturdier buildings will withstand it but with damage.”

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...confirmed?lite

[6souls]

first images

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9A603Q20131108

[6souls]

[bechyni]

person in the third video is brave as shit standing next to those lines with the winds being that bad

[Boyiee]

person in the third video is brave as shit standing next to those lines with the winds being that bad

Welllllllllll I wouldn't call it that.

[Karbuncle]

person in the third video is brave as shit standing next to those lines with the winds being that bad

And Kayless said, "The Wind does not respect a fool".

dudegunnagetblownaway

[Hatedregret]

Totally watched that Star Trek episode recently. So great.

I feel for those people. Nature, why so angry?

[Shenrien]

person in the third video is brave as shit standing next to those lines with the winds being that bad

I'd call it natural selection at work.

[The Stig]

Totally watched that Star Trek episode recently. So great.

I feel for those people. Nature, why so angry?

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__...perSaiyan3.png

On a serious note, we're waiting to hear how our offshore office is faring as we have one that handles our paperwork/admin tasks in Manila.

[Abandon]

i fully expect to be deploying there to help with recovery efforts. damnit, if i miss football i shall be pissed

[Brill Weave]

i fully expect to be deploying there to help with recovery efforts. damnit, if i miss football i shall be pissed

Yeah I think it's safe to say you're going to be there a while.

[Lucavi]

That storm isn't playing around... those winds are crazy.

[Aidin]

I have in-laws on Siquijor, seems to be right in the path.. I should probably get in touch and see if my sister has heard anything from them.

[6souls]

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...1_70987020.jpg

A Christmas tree was felled by the storm in Cebu province

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24846813

THE HORROR

[Drex]

damn I was wondering what happened to that tree

[Boyiee]

Early reports are 1200+ dead even with the 800,000+ evacuated. Apparently one evacuation center got wrecked. The news videos are showing bodies in the street and in debris of destroyed houses, some bodies being wheeled around in wheelbarrows.

[bluefan]

Brutal.

[6souls]

Early reports are 1200+ dead even with the 800,000+ evacuated.

More recent reports are 10k+.

As many as 10,000 people are feared dead after Super Typhoon Haiyan — one of the most powerful storms ever recorded — slammed into the central islands of the Philippines, a senior police official said.

Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla late Saturday and told there were about 10,000 deaths on the island, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor's figure was based on reports from village officials in areas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed Friday.

Earlier it was reported that the death toll was 1,200 according to an estimate made by Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, was culled by field reports from the relief organization's workers, Richard Gordon, CEO of the Philippine Red Cross, told USA TODAY.

Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city alone "could go up to 10,000."

As Haiyan heads west toward Vietnam, the Red Cross is at the forefront of an international effort to provide food, water, shelter and other relief to the hundreds of thousands of residents who have lost their homes and livelihood, Gordon said.

"This is a big, full-court press," he said. "We're pulling out all the stops to help."

With widespread power outages, roads blocked, bridges down and debris strewn everywhere, getting life back to some semblance of normal in the region will take time.

"The Philippines are always resilient, and we're going to get back up," Gordon said.

Anna Lindenfors, Philippines director of Save the Children, said officials in the country were still trying to gather information about the damage caused by Typhoon Haiyan. As of Saturday, communication lines to the hardest hits areas had yet to be re-established, she said.

"With this magnitude, we know that the destruction is overwhelming," said Emma Amores, who was waiting outside Villamor Airbase in Manila, where a C-130 was loading relief supplies and personnel heading to hard-hit Tacloban. "From the images we saw on TV, it's highly likely our houses are gone. We just want to know that the family are all safe."

Spoiler: show

Romil Elinsuv, who is in Manila for work training, worried about his wife and 4-year-old son, who are at their home in Palo, a town in the province of Leyte.

"I feel fear. I don't know what the situation is there," Elinsuv said. He said he spoke with his wife the day before. She assured him they were OK, but then the line went dead, and he's been unable to reach her since.

Super Typhoon Haiyan hit Guiuan, on the Philippine island of Samar, at 4:40 a.m. local time Friday. Three hours before landfall, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center assessed Haiyan's sustained winds at 195 mph, gusting to 235 mph, making it the fourth-strongest tropical cyclone in world history.

Graciano Lopez, 65, of Midlothian, Va., spent much of Friday night and Saturday morning glued to his television, phone and Facebook account waiting for word from family members in the Philippines. A retired engineer, Lopez grew up in Quezon City just outside of Manila. Throughout his childhood, he lived through various typhoons, the damage they leave behind and the rebuilding process that often meant annually replacing roofs of homes.

But this weekend, Lopez knew Haiyan was not like any typhoon he had experienced. He took pains to warn family members in the Philippines to be ready for the worse. "I was worried," he said. "I knew this was in a different league."

Lopez's relatives were spared the brunt of the storm and were left dealing with roofs that had been blown off and downed trees, he said.

"They are very thankful," Lopez said. "They got ordinary storm damage which they get several times a year so they were all kind of ready for that."

After losing strength as it moved over the Philippines and west into the South China Sea on Saturday, Haiyan was expected to maintain typhoon strength and hit Hanoi, Vietnam, late Sunday local time.

Preparations were well underway in the country Saturday ahead of the storm, with nearly 500,000 having been evacuated from high-risk areas across the central region from Phu Yen to Quang Binh provinces, according to state-run local media.

Witnesses in Danang reported empty supermarket shelves by Friday as anxious locals rushed to stock up on supplies in anticipation of the deadly typhoon's arrival.

The typhoon is expected to hit Vietnam as a Category 2 or 3 typhoon according to the Red Cross, which estimates 6.5 million people will be affected by the storm.

The storm has already claimed its first victims in Vietnam, with local media reporting two people dead and 30 more injured in Quang Nam province Friday as a result of accidents during storm preparations.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...etnam/3483099/

[Boyiee]

The "10,000" estimate has been lowered. Looking like 1700-2000 confirmed as of now and expecting 2,000-2,500 to be final number.