Haiyan, a category-5 super typhoon, landed in the Philippines on Friday with 170 mph winds caused 15-19 foot waves around the northern tip of the Cebu province, Reuters reported.
The typhoon, the strongest to hit this year, forced about a million people in 29 provinces to take shelter, Reuters reported. President Benigno Aquino urged people in areas around river banks, coastal villages and mountain slopes to remove themselves from Haiyan's path.
A school teacher in Southern Leyte, which is a couple hundred miles from southeast Manila, told a radio station the school in the area "is now packed with evacuees," according to Reuters.
"The super typhoon likely made landfall with winds near 195 mph," Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at U.S.-based Weather Underground told Reuters. "This makes Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall."
Before the typhoon hit, authorities suspended ferry services and fishing and closed 13 airports causing 450 domestic flights and eight international flights to be suspended, Reuters reported. All school, offices and ships in the central regions were closed.
According to officials, hospital, soldiers and emergency workers were preparing for rescue efforts and 20 navy ships and military aircraft were on standby, Reuters reported.
A spokesman for the National Disaster Agency Rey Balido told reporters in Manila at least three people have been reported dead and seven have been reported injured, adding that the death toll could rise as rescue efforts begin.
"The humanitarian impact of Haiyan threatens to be colossal," Patrick Fuller, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told Reuters.
Officials said more than 12 million people are at risk with power and communications the islands of Samar, Leyte and Bohol were down, but promised it would be fixed in the next 24 hours, Reuters reported.
The governor of the Southern Leyte province Roger Mercado told Reuters "roads are still impassable," and "there are some landslides." Mercado said the landslides destroyed houses in the hills and flattened 100 coastal homes, but has no reports of casualties.
"The whole province has no power," the Samar province Governor Sharee Tan told Reuters by telephone.
Haiyan is expected to leave the Philippines area on Saturday and move towards the South China Sea, where state weather bureau officials say it may strengthen and hit Vietnam, Reuters reported. Evacuations have begun after meteorologist in Vietnam deemed it the strongest storm to hit the country if it lands.
