Power, communication cut-off: Yolanda batters Visayas

CEBU, Philippines - Super typhoon Yolanda - the strongest typhoon on record to make landfall - battered the Visayas yesterday, toppling power and communication lines, uprooting trees, destroying houses and killing at least three.

Seven persons were reported injured while two were reported missing in Cebu.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that a total of 145,641 families were affected by the typhoon but authorities say the numbers could increase once reports from the hard-hit areas come in.

Yolanda, packing winds of 235 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 275 kph, made landfall over Guiuan, Eastern Samar at around 4:30 a.m., cutting off the island from all communication, local civil defense authorities said.

Yolanda slightly weakened after making several landfalls, weather forecaster Gener Quitlong of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said.

It also made landfall over Dulag Tolosa in Leyte; Daanbantayan and Bantayan Island in Cebu, Concepcion, Iloilo and Cuartero, Capiz.

A total of 3,093 passengers and 155 sea vessels were stranded in ports due to Yolanda, the Philippine Coast Guard said at the NDRRMC press conference, adding that no maritime incidents have been recorded so far.

Cellular services of Smart, Sun, and Globe were not operating fully in the provinces of Samar and Leyte, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) reported. At least 67 cell sites belonging to Globe are affected by power outages in Samar and Leyte, while Smart's service in Leyte is on degraded status, the NTC said.

As 4 p.m. yesterday, the eye of the typhoon was spotted at 115 kilometers west of Roxas City or over western coast of Antique.

As of 5 p.m. signal no. 4 remained hoisted over extreme northern Palawan, Calamian Group of Islands, southern Occidental Mindoro, southern Oriental Mindoro, Aklan, Capiz, Antique, Iloilo, and Guimaras.

Signal no. 3 over rest of Mindoro provinces, Romblon, and rest of northern Palawan, including Puerto Princesa City.

Under signal no. 2 were Lubang Island, Batangas, Marinduque, the rest of Palawan, Burias Island, Masbate, Ticao Island, Negros provinces, Cebu, Biliran Island, and Siargao.

Signal no. 1 was hoisted over Metro Manila, Bataan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Quezon, Camarines provinces, Albay, Sorsogon, Samar provinces, Leyte provinces, Camotes Island, Bohol, Siquijor, Camiguin, Surigao del Norte, and Dinagat province.

As of 5 p.m., Yolanda, with maximum sustained winds of 215 kph, was traversing the Sulu Sea and was expected to cross Calamian Group of Islands between 8 and 10 p.m. yesterday.

It was forecast to exit Philippine landmass last night towards the West Philippine Sea and move west northwest at 40 kph.

An average of 20 major storms, many of them deadly, batter the Philippines each year. The country is particularly vulnerable because it is often the first major landmass for the storms after they build over the Pacific Ocean.

The Philippines suffered the world's strongest storm of 2012, when Typhoon Pablo left about 2,000 people dead or missing in Mindanao.

Yolanda's wind strength made it one of the four most powerful typhoons ever recorded in the world, and the most intense to have made landfall, according to Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at US-based Weather Underground.

The super typhoon, internationally codenamed Haiyan, generated wind gusts of 379 kilometers an hour on Friday morning, according to the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Masters said the previous record for the strongest typhoon to make landfall was Hurricane Camille, which hit Mississippi in the United States with sustained winds of 190 kilometers an hour in 1969.

Seattle-based meteorologist Morgan Palmer is also among those who believe that Yolanda may be accorded the superlative.

"Do I think Haiyan will be the strongest in recorded history to make a landfall? Probably. But we may never know actual maximum winds," Palmer said on his Twitter account Thursday.

Although Palmer is not one to settle on satellite estimates, Tenessee storm chaser Karen Rome has a theory.

"It is so far the strongest to make landfall at approx. 195 mph," she said, replying to Palmer on the microblogging site.

Several typhoons in the country have been recorded with winds speeds greater than 240 kph, such as Reming (320 kph) in 2006, Sening (275 kph) in 1970 and Rosing (260 kph) in 1995.

Slower-moving Nitang in 1984, however, was the most fatal typhoon to be recorded, causing the deaths of1,363 people, the Ateneo de Manila-based Manila Observatory said in a study released on Thursday.

American extreme storm chaser Jim Edds went to Tacloban City, which is directly on the storm's way, to shoot a documentary on Yolanda.

"I keep telling everyone here how powerful the typhoon is but they don't seem to comprehend what's coming," he said. — Philippine STAR News Service and philstar.com/QSB