Super Typhoon Haiyan has made landfall in the Philippines on Friday. As USA Today reports, the massive storm with winds reaching 200 mph has ravaged the Philippines as it hit the small eastern city of Guiuan. The storm's maximum sustained winds have reached 195 mph, with gusts of up to 235 mph. "There aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind," Jeff Masters, a former hurricane meteorologist who is meteorology director at the private firm Weather Underground told the Washington Post.
The super typhoon could wreck catastrophic damages across the Philippines as thousands of people were evacuated from the region. This is the strongest hurricane or typhoon to ever form in the Atlantic or Eastern Pacific. There may be as many as 10 million people at risk from this storm. Latest reports indicate that Haiyan will be passing near Tacloban, a city of about 250,000, and Cebu, a city of nearly 1 million: however, the storm is not expected to pass near Manila, the country's capital. Though it is intense, the storm is expected to pass quickly.
According to Fox News, "Television images showed a street under knee-deep floodwater carrying debris that had been blown down by the fierce winds. Tin sheets ripped off from buildings roofs were flying above the street." There are as yet no reports of casualties, however, many news and government services have been unreachable.
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