The most powerful storm ever has hit the Philippines. The monster TYPHOON (Tropical Cyclone), with winds reaching 237km/h, killed more than 100 people, tossed houses into the sea and sent millions fleeing for shelter in the Philippines yesterday.
The poverty-stricken country has already endured almost a year of earthquakes and floods with no fewer than 24 disastrous weather events.
The category-5 super typhoon Haiyan – Chinese for ‘sea bird’ – smashed into the eastern islands of the Philippines with winds nearly 150mph stronger than the St Jude storm which struck the UK in late October.
Roofs were ripped from houses, ferocious 20ft waves washed away coastal villages, power lines came down and trees were uprooted.
Initial reports said four people had been killed, including a villager who was electrocuted and a man who was struck by lightning.
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. The Philippine government and some scientists have said climate change may be increasing the ferocity and frequency of storms.
But Masters said warm Pacific waters were an important reason for the strength of Haiyan, adding it was premature to blame climate change based on the scanty historical data available. 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. The Philippines has known disaster at the hands of mother nature as recently as 2011 when typhoon Washi killed 1,200 people, displaced 300,000 and destroyed more than 10,000 homes.
In September, category-five typhoon Usagi, with winds gusting of up to 149 mph, battered the northern island of Batanes before causing damage in southern China. Bopha last year flattened three coastal towns on the southern island of Mindanao, killing 1,100 people and wreaking damage estimated at $1.04 billion.
Cambodian authorities said they were closely watching the development of the world's biggest storm to materialise.
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