Super Typhoon Haiyan, possibly the strongest storm ever, according to CNN, ran through the central Philippines of Friday leaving the area devastated.
The storm hit Samar at 4:30 a.m., causing flooding in the streets, knocking out the power and communications networks in the region of Eastern Visayas and continued on its path into four other islands as it moved across the country.
Three people have been killed and seven have been injured, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. An additional 125,000 people took refuge in evacuation centers. Hundreds of flights in and out of the country have been canceled.
The storm has sustained winds of 195 miles per hour with gusts that have reached 235 miles per hour, making Haiyan a strong contender for the strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit land in recorded history. The definitive determination won't be made until the storm passes and it can be analyzed.
Because of the storm's immense speed, it was over quickly, but it left severe damage in its wake.
"About 90 percent 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 and assessment teams were preparing to enter the most heavily damaged areas as soon as the conditions allowed, Pang said.
"We will be definitely needing more support for this one," Pang added. She predicts the number of casualties will increase as the aid workers reach the affected areas, where flood waters reached up to 10 feet high.
World Vision "has been working through so many disasters, so many typhoons - but this is quite different," Maryann Zamora, a field communications specialist for World Vision told CNN. "This is the strongest I ever felt so far."
The Governor, Roger Mercado, has been surveying the damage, and has found that fallen trees have made many roads impassable.
"We don't know the extent of the damage, Mercado said. "We are trying to estimate this.
"We are prepared, but this is really a wallop," Mercado continued.
Video coverage of the typhoon.
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