Super typhoon to hit Vietnam today Over 2,00,000 Evacuated

Hanoi: More than 2,00,000 people crammed into Vietnam storm shelters and soldiers helped reinforce vulnerable homes as a super typhoon bore down on the country on Saturday after leaving a deadly trail of devastation in the Philippines. Haiyan, one of the most intense typhoons on record, slammed into the Philippines on Friday with sustained winds of about 315 kmph. It is expected to make landfall in central Vietnam early on Sunday, with millions of people thought to be in its path.

    Authorities have begun mass evacuations in at least four central coastal provinces, Vietnam's state-run VNExpress news site said, as the country was put on high alert. "More than 2,00,000 people have evacuated to shelters," VNExpress said. 
The army has been mobilized to provide emergency relief with some 1,70,000 soldiers assisting people after the typhoon hits. Many schools in the affected area — normally open at the weekends — have closed, as people from vulnerable low-lying coastal villages moved to higher ground. Images showed women, children and the elderly crowded into typhoon shelters. The Red Cross has said Haiyan is likely to be a category two or three typhoon and warned that some 6.5 million people in Vietnam could be affected. 
    Central Vietnam has recently been hit by two other typhoons which flooded roads, damaged sea dykes and tore the roofs off hundreds of thousands of houses. AFP 
TRAIL OF DEVASTATION 
The devastation is...I don't have the words for it. It's really horrific. It's a great human tragedy 
—Mar Roxas | Interior secy 
I told him (President Benigno Aquino III) all systems are down. There is no power, no water, nothing. People are desperate. They're looting 
—Voltaire Gazmin | Defence secy 
    The water 
    was as high as a coconut tree. I was swept away by the rampaging water with logs, trees and our house. Many people were floating and raising their hands and yelling for help. But what can we do? We also needed to be helped 
—Sandy Torotoro, 
    a bicycle taxi 
    driver 
The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami 
Sebastian Rhodes Stampa | UN official

NATURE'S FURY: The airport at Tacloban city in Philippines is razed to the ground; (top right) people amid the rubbles of their houses