Typhoon Haiyan

Super Typhoon Haiyan made morning landfall at Guiuan, a small city in Samar province in the eastern Philippines. The U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said maximum sustained winds were 195 mph, with gusts to 235 mph.

It reached the fragile island chain as the most powerful typhoon or hurricane in recorded history, based on wind speed measurements from satellites, says meteorologist Jeff Masters of Weather Underground.

""There aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind,'' Masters said.
Authorities in Guiuan could not be reached for word of any deaths or damage, regional civil defense chief Rey Gozon told DZBB radio.

Forecaster Mario Palafox with the nation's weather bureau said it had lost contact with its staff in the landfall area.

A reporter for the network in the Tacloban city was drenched in the pounding rain and said he was wearing a helmet as protection against flying debris. Visibility was so poor that only his silhouette could be seen through the driving rain and water.

Officials in Cebu province have shut down electric service to the northern part of the province to avoid electrocutions in case power pylons are toppled, said assistant regional civil defense chief Flor Gaviola.

Thousands of people evacuated villages in the central Philippines as Haiyan took aim the region, which was devastated by an earthquake last month.

No Atlantic or eastern Pacific hurricane has ever been stronger than Haiyan (typhoons are the same type of storms as hurricanes).

The latest forecast track shows Haiyan passing near Tacloban, a city of about 250,000, and Cebu, a city of nearly 1 million, reports meteorologist Eric Holthaus of Quartz magazine.

The storm was not expected to directly hit Manila, which is farther north. Predictions for Manila were for winds of up to 37 mph and rain.