Super typhoon in the Philippines claimed at least 1.200 lives

The number of victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines on Friday, has risen to, as feared, more than 1.200, world media reported today.

According to the first information, there were around a hundred victims of the storm, and later the Red Cross stated that the number of dead could be more than a thousand, and that it is possible that another 200 people died in the Samar area, the BBC said.

Among the hardest hit areas were the island of Leyte and the coastal city of Tacloban, where the storm demolished houses and uprooted trees.

Typhoon Haiyan is now moving towards Vietnam and is expected to hit that country on Sunday, and the evacuation of more than 200 Vietnamese is underway.

During the flight over the city of Takloban, civilian pilots stated that they saw at least a hundred bodies of people on the flooded streets, and journalists reported about another 20 in a church.

The army and emergency services have begun rescue operations, but their work is drastically hampered by the fact that the storm "cut off" electricity and telephone lines in the most vulnerable areas, as well as the fact that the airports were badly damaged.

As the BBC reports, four deaths have been officially confirmed so far and it is possible that days will pass until the final number of dead is known, but it is feared that the final balance will be measured in the hundreds.

"Officials expect the number of victims to rise dramatically once the army and rescue services manage to break through to the cut-off areas, but so far no one has released estimates," writes the "Guardian".

The videos released after the worst was over after the several-hour strike, show destroyed streets, collapsed buildings without roofs and walls, downed poles, as well as "stacked" cars on city streets.

According to officials, almost all the houses in the city of Tacloban, home to 220.000 people, were destroyed and "every tree in the city was cut in half."

"Almost all the houses have been destroyed, many of them completely. Only a few are still standing, with significant damage," said Major Ray Balido of the National Disaster Agency.

"We have reports of collapsed multi-storey buildings, completely flattened houses, numerous electrocutions, large landslides and landslides," Gwendolyn Pang of the Red Cross told AFP.

She pointed out that it is currently not possible to estimate the exact amount of damage and that the picture will be clearer during the day, but experts said yesterday, in anticipation of the storm, that the damage will be unprecedented and of "catastrophic proportions".

Photo: Reuters

Haiyan is one of the strongest typhoons ever to hit the Philippines, and was accompanied by extremely strong winds that tore off roofs and high waves that carried away dilapidated houses.

Super typhoon Haiyan first hit coastal settlements on the central island of Samar, about 600 kilometers southeast of Manila, with maximum wind speeds of 315 kilometers per hour.

Wind gusts reached 379 km/h during the day, and the waves hitting the coast were up to 15 meters high.

More than 125.000 people were evacuated from the most threatened areas before the typhoon hit, millions were in shelters, and it is estimated that at least 25 million people are in some way threatened by the impact of the storm, which according to some criteria is the strongest since the beginning of measurements, in 1969, and hurricanes Camel.

Schools in the path of the typhoon were closed, ship departures and flights were suspended, and many schools were also closed in the capital, Manila, in anticipation of heavy rainfall.

Photo: Reuters

The Philippines is hit by about 20 storms a year, and many of them cause numerous casualties and extensive damage. Haiyan is the 24th storm to hit the country since the beginning of the year.

Many places that the typhoon passed through have already experienced a disaster this year, when they were hit by a 7,3 magnitude earthquake. Because of this, thousands of people waited out this storm in tents.

Typhoon Haiyan headed towards Vietnam before dawn, where the mass evacuation of around 100.000 people began.

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