Typhoon Yolanda, also known as Typhoon Haiyan, is bearing down on the central Philippines, with tens of thousands of people evacuating.
Early reports on Friday morning say that the storm has already hit Eastern Samar Province near Guiuan.
The Sun-Star reported that Tolosa and Leyte Province were also getting hit. A video uploaded to Instagram shows the storm hitting Tacloban City in Leyte Province.
Power outages were reported in the Visayas and South Luzon.
The storm is hitting northeastern Mindanao up to southern Luzon, Rappler reported, citing PAGASA, the country’s weather agency.
The storm is expected to later hit the provinces Biliran, the northern part of Cebu, Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, Romblon, Semirara Island, and southern Mindoro, reported ABS-CBN.
It will leave the Philippine landmass on Saturday.
The typhoon was described as the year’s most powerful storm, forcing thousands of people to evacuate villages in the central Philippines, and it will likely pass over areas that were hit by last month’s earthquake.
Haiyan sped up and intensified on Thursday as it moved closer to the Philippines, according to The Associated Press. It has winds of 140 miles per hour and gusts of around 160 miles per hour.
The typhoon has maximum sustained winds of 314 kilometers per hour (195 mph), and gusts up to 379 kilometers per hour (235 mph), AP reported.
Rappler reported that as many as 5 million people live in impoverished areas along the path of the storm, while around 55 million will be affected overall.
The typhoon has already hit the Visayas--where 21 areas were placed under public storm warning No. 4, according to the Philippine Star. The typhoon made landfall at Guiuan, Eastern Samar at around 4:40 a.m.
The storm signal number No. 4 affects Masbate, Ticao Island, Southern Sorsogon, Romblon, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran Province, Northern Cebu, Cebu City, Bantayan Islands, Camotes Islands, Northern Negros Occidental, Capiz, Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Guimaras, and Dinagat Island.
Storm signal No. 3 affects Siargao Island, Dinagat Province, Rest of Antique, Iloilo, Guimaras, Northern Negros Occidental, Northern Negros Oriental, Northern Cebu including Cebu City, Northern Samar, Bohol, Masbate, Ticao Island, Sorsogon, Romblon, and Calamian Group of Islands, according to Rappler.
Around 125,604 people were sent to 109 evacuation centers in 22 provinces, reported the Sun-Star.
MORE:
Tacloban City Hit by Typhoon Haiyan; Flooding, Damage Reported
Daanbantayan: ‘Roofs Are Flying Everywhere’ After Typhoon Yolanda Hits
Ormoc City, Tolosa, Dulag: Power Outages in Leyte After Typhoon Yolanda Hits
Cebu: 1 Dead as Fierce Winds and Rain From Typhoon Haiyan Hit Province
AP Story below:
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of people evacuated villages in the central Philippines on Thursday before one of the year’s strongest typhoons strikes the region, including a province devastated by an earthquake last month.
Typhoon Haiyan intensified and accelerated as it moved closer to the country with sustained winds of 225 kilometers (140 miles) per hour and ferocious gusts of 260 kph (162 mph). It could further strengthen and pick up speed as it moves over the Pacific Ocean before slamming into the eastern province of Samar early Friday, government forecaster Buddy Javier said.
As of 9 p.m., the eye of the typhoon was 338 kilometers (211 miles) southeast of Eastern Samar province’s Guiuan township. The storm was moving at 39 kph (24 mph), up from its earlier speed of 33 kph (20 mph).
The storm was not expected to directly hit Manila further north. The lowest alert in a four-leveltyphoon warning system was issued in the flood-prone capital area, meaning it could experience winds of up to 60 kph (37 mph) and rain.
The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii said it was the strongest tropical cyclone in the world this year. Cyclone Phailin, which hit eastern India on Oct. 12, packed sustained winds of up to 222 kph (138 mph) and stronger gusts.
President Benigno Aquino III 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 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.
Governors and mayors supervised the evacuation of landslide- and flood-prone communities in several provinces where the typhoon is expected to pass, said Eduardo del Rosario, head of the government’s main disaster-response agency. School classes and plane flights were canceled in many areas.
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.
Edgardo Chatto, governor of Bohol island province in the central Philippines, where an earthquake in October killed more than 200 people, said soldiers, police and rescue units were helping displaced residents, including thousands staying in small tents, move to shelters. Bohol is not forecast to receive a direct hit but is expected to be battered by strong winds and rain, government forecaster Jori Loiz said.
“My worst fear is that the eye of this typhoon will hit us. I hope we will be spared,” Chatto told The Associated Press by telephone.
Gov. Roger Mercado of landslide-prone Southern Leyte province said more than 6,000 residents had been evacuated to shelters, government and emergency personnel had been put on alert, and relief goods have been packed for distribution.
“All we are doing now is we are praying, praying hard,” he told ABS-CBN News Channel.
Mayor Emiliana Villacarillo of Eastern Samar’s Dolores township said residents of her town did not want to be evacuated because the weather was fine on Thursday but “we forced them and hauled them to evacuation centers.”
Haiyan is forecast to barrel through the country’s central region Friday and Saturday before blowing toward the South China Sea over the weekend, heading toward Vietnam.
