One of the biggest storms in history slammed the Philippines, with wind speeds as fast as 190 mph, by some estimates. Officials with the Philippine Red Cross estimate as many as 1200 people are dead in the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan, with thousands more left homeless.
Roads and bridges are destroyed and power outages are widespread throughout the region. The head of the UN disaster assessment co-ordination team, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa described the scene as destruction on a massive scale.
“There are cars thrown like tumbleweed and the streets are strewn with debris…the last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami.”