The world’s strongest typhoon of the year has slammed into the Philippines.
It was poised to be the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded at landfall, a weather expert said.
“There will be catastrophic damage,” said Jeff Masters, a former hurricane meteorologist who is meteorology director at the private firm Weather Underground.
The US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in Hawaii said Typhoon Haiyan’s maximum sustained winds were 195mph, with gusts up to 235mph.
“195mph winds, there aren’t too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind,” Mr Masters said.
The local weather bureau had a lower reading, saying the storm’s speed at landfall had sustained winds at 145mph with gusts of 171mph. The bureau takes measures based on longer periods of time.
Thousands of people have evacuated villages in the typhoon’s path.
The only tiny bright side is that it is a fast-moving storm, so flooding from heavy rain – which usually causes the most deaths from typhoons in the Philippines – may not be as bad, Mr Masters said.
“The wind damage should be the most extreme in Philippines history,” he said.
The storm is forecast to barrel through the Philippines’ central region before blowing towards the South China Sea over the weekend, heading across towards Vietnam and Laos.
President Benigno Aquino III said: “No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we’ll be united.”