One of history's strongest typhoons to make landfall bludgeoned itself through the Philippines in a straight line from the Pacific to the South China Sea. In its wake, it devastated several central provinces and leaving scores of dead according to Philippine officials last Saturday.
The dead that Typhoon 'Yolanda' (International Name: Haiyan) is estimated to top the initial count of 100 as rescue workers find their way to distant areas that were cut off by the fast moving storm. At one point, the circumference of the storm engulfed the whole country and is now being tracked to be heading towards Vietnam.
According to UN Disaster Assessment Coordination Team head Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, "The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. This is a destruction on a massive scale. There are cars thrown like tumbleweed and the streets are strewn with debris."
The storm belted out wind gusts reaching 275 kph and pushed waves as high as six meters last Friday into the provinces of Leyte and Samar before continuing its path over the northern tip of Cebu province. It had weakened and slowed down slightly as it moved on its west-northwesternly path hitting tourist destination Boracay and later Mindoro Island.
This is the second Category 5 typhoon to hit the country in 2013. Overall, an average of nearly twenty typhoons ravage the archipelage each year and for 2013, Haiyan was the 24th for the year.
The last Category 5 typhoon that hit the Philippines, Typhoon Bopha in 2013 cut a path of destruction in the southern part of the country. The death toll reached 1,100 and the damage then was estimated to reach USD1 billion. For this count, because of the preparedness of the country, the death count and the cost may be a bit lower.
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