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Super Typhoon Haiyan Pounds Philippines

Aired November 08, 2013 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Don Lemon in for Ashleigh.

It is November 8th and this is LEGAL VIEW. We're going to start with some breaking news as you heard in the animation there.

What we know about this monster typhoon that is tearing its way through the Philippines right now, it is terrifying.

What we don't know may be even worse, and that is the true scope of the damage, the death and the misery inflicted by one of the strongest storms in recorded history, one of the strongest storms in recorded history, maybe the strongest.

Super Typhoon Haiyan hit land with top, sustained winds of 195-miles- per-hour. The strongest known hurricane to hit the U.S. was Camille. That was back in 1969 with top winds of 190-miles-an-hour. Andrew, in 1992, had 165-mile-an-hour winds. Katrina, 125. Just to give you some comparison there.

The confirmed death toll from Haiyan stands at three with seven people hurt. But still, they have to assess the damage. Sadly, those figures are assured to rise as authorities re-establish contact with far-flung islands.

And before I bring in our correspondent in Manila, and I want to bring in -- and CNN meteorologist Chad Myers, I just want you to see and I want you to hear Super Typhoon Haiyan for yourself. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa. Oh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So that's the camera pointing out of a window or on a balcony.

Now, you can see the expressions on people's faces. Look at this. This video is just in to CNN.

These are people being rescued after two barges collided on the Bohol Sea, and these crews are rescuing these guys.

Now take a look at this. They're trying to get them over the seawall to safety, but the winds are so high, the waves are so high, waves up to 20-feet high, if not higher, and they're trying to get them to safety.

Again, this is two barges that collided in the Bohol Sea. And this is one of the strongest storms ever recorded on Earth. Can you imagine being these people who were being rescued from the sea here?

Again, only three people confirmed dead so far as we start to get the new images in. And sadly, officials are quite sure, they're telling us that the death toll will probably ride.

In the meantime, we want to get to CNN's Paula Hancocks, who's riding out the storm in Manila, in the Philippine capital.

Paula, tell us what you're seeing, what you're hearing from where you are and from other places, Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Don, Manila itself, the capital, has actually not been badly hit by this typhoon at all, but further south has been.

And what we're hearing from officials at this point is, quite frankly, they don't know how bad it has been.

They have no communications with many areas in the central part of the Philippines. Communications are out.

Electricity is out in many of these areas, so they have blackouts as well.

And the local time is midnight. So, at this point, it's very difficult for them to have a real grasp of just how big this disaster is. It has been called a potential calamity by officials, by people in power.

There are real concerns that this was going to hit the country very hard, because many of these areas in central Philippines are not very built-up areas. They are some very significant cities, but many areas are small villages.

There are many poor areas and they are not substantial homes that the people are living in.

Now we know more than 700,000 people were evacuated. They were taken away from the low-lying areas because they knew there were going to be some storm surges and that was going to affect those along the coast.

But at this point, we just don't know if they have evacuated enough people, if that evacuation was significant enough.

Many of the roads as well are down because the sheer force of the winds actually brought down a number of trees, and so at first light, rescue crews are going to have to clear the roads before they get to some of these areas.

And, of course, the military is on stand-by for first light to get in the air and try and get in these areas and see what people need.

Don? LEMON: Paula, let's continue on and talk as we get the new pictures in at every moment here on CNN from this monstrous typhoon here.

Can you talk to me a little bit more about the infrastructure there? Can it sustain these types of winds and, probably more important, the storm surge?

HANCOCKS (via telephone): Some parts can. What we're talking about is two-thirds of the Philippines. This is an enormous area we're talking about, because this super typhoon is so large.

So, some areas will have proper infrastructure. We know there's around 600 shelters that have been opened up in about 29 different provinces, so people will have gone to those shelters.

And, of course, the hope is that the shelters themselves were significant enough and the infrastructure was strong enough to withstand these significant winds.

But many areas are poor in the Philippines. It's not a rich country. And many of these areas would have been -- people would be have been living either in shacks -- we know in some areas people were still living in tents because on the island of Bohol because that's where there was an earthquake just recently.

And there were hundreds -- tens of thousands of peoples that had lost their homes there. So they were still in temporary housing and tents.

So there is a concern that there are those who have been vulnerable to this very heavy wind, the very heavy rain, and the hope is that they manage to evacuate in time.

Don?

LEMON: And, Paula, last month the country was hit by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that killed 222 people.

Listen, we're still getting these pictures in. Paula, I want you to stand by, and I want our Chad Myers to stand by, as well, because we're going to continue to keep talking over this and follow on with this breaking news.

Again, these images are just coming in to CNN, many of them from Super Typhoon Haiyan that is really creating havoc on the Philippines.

Our severe weather expert Chad Myers is tracking it all for us. The newest information, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone, Don Lemon.

The breaking news here on CNN is one of the strongest storms ever recorded on this planet. You can see just how massive it is.

I want you to take a look at these satellite images. It's showing the typhoon approaching the Philippines. It is Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Typhoon Yolanda.

CNN's Chad Myers in the CNN Severe Weather Center down in Atlanta, Chad, give us an idea about its scope as we look at these satellite images.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We will never know, Don, how big and how high the winds were with this storm. There's not going to be one wind vane anemometer that will survive long enough to get up to 195, if that's where it was.

People out to the -- in the eastern parts of the Pacific there, they don't even fly into these storms. They don't have a way to fly like we do.

We would know what this storm was because we would have our AC-130s in there taking a look -- not AC-130s, C-130s, in there, looking at what this storm has done and what the wind speed is.

It's so devastating that this is the size of the storm, right here, from top to bottom. Over here, this is the size of India, so it would cover up the entire country of India, the eye itself, very , very small when it moved over these islands.

And when -- the small eye is a bad thing. Think about a figure skater bringing her arms in as she spins on the ice with one foot and how fast she spins when brings her arms in and how much slower she goes when she puts her arms out.

A wide eye would have been much, much better, but it tightened up right over the islands, right over actually we actually have -- a dangerous reporter out there, and I'm just really very happy that we got in contact with him because we did lose contact with him for quite some time, and I was very concerned.

You can't imagine, Don, what a 195-mile-per-hour wind would be like. I've been in a number of hurricanes, and so have you, but nothing, nothing like this.

LEMON: Hey, Chad, I want you to listen to this with me, and then you and I will talk about it, this video, again, just into CNN.

These are people are being rescued from a barge -- from -- when two barges collided in Bohol Sea.

Let's just listen to it real quick, Chad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... as seen off the coast of (inaudible).

One barge, which was carrying tons of limestone, was tossed around like a toy under the fierce waves.

The other barge tilted. From the port, we could see the crew members frantically waving and shouting for help. Shortly after, rescuers arrived. They initially planned to use a rope to reach the barges, but they were forced to retreat due to the big waves.

As rescuers approached, crew members jumped, one after the other. They all struggled to stay afloat for nearly an hour, fighting the current.

Almost all of them were able to make it back to the port safe and sound, but one remains missing.

Jeff (ph) (inaudible) --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: My goodness.

And we were saying -- I said earlier, waves as high as 20-feet high. Looks higher than that to me.

MYERS: Definitely. And the high seas forecast It was for 50-foot waves coming onshore there on the eastern sides of the island, and that wasn't even close to the eye.

What you saw there wasn't nearly as bad as what some people experienced that got close to the eye.

We're not even going to get pictures out of it. There aren't going to be people who are going to be able to take pictures of when it was the worst possible.

Wind gusts were estimated at 235-miles-per-hour. That's faster than an Indy car goes at the Indianapolis 500.

And you get hit by winds or by waves or by boards or shingles coming off the roofs, there's an awful lot more damage there than we can even show you because we don't have those pictures yet.

LEMON: And, Chad, so a Category 5, that's the highest, but this one is probably a lot higher than that? That's just the highest the scale is.

MYERS: You know, it's like saying my car can't go more than 120 because that's where my speedometer says.

Well, you know, a Category 5 starts at 156 and then goes up. There show be a Category 6, because that -- we're 40-miles-per-hour over what a Category 3 would have started -- or what a Category 5.

We're talking about EF-4 tornado that was 10- or 20-miles-wide, that ripped a swath right across the country. And then around that EF-3, - 2, -1 damage, probably be 40-, 50-, 60-miles wide as it came across this country.

So the winds are going to be important, obviously. The wind speeds knocked almost everything down. I don't know what even in America could survive 195. And then you're talking about a storm surge that was at least 40 feet. And what know what a tsunami, or what storm surge did to the islands there after the earthquake, and also what Sandy's surge was 12, 13 feet in New York harbor? This is going to be triple that because it's that much bigger than what Sandy ever was.

LEMON: My goodness. All right, Chad Myers, stand by. We're going to talk to a reporter who is out in Manila right now. We'll get to her after the break. But I want to keep you posted. If you want any developments, how you can help, whatever you need, go to CNN.com/impact. These new images are being gathered. We'll be back right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news here is that the people of the Philippines in the middle of a super typhoon, possibly the strongest one ever recorded on Earth. Want to get right to a reporter who is in the middle of it. Kathy Novak is in Manila. She joins us now by phone. What are you seeing and hearing there?

KATHY NOVAK, MANILA, PHILIPPINES: Don, earlier Chad Myers was doing a great job trying to explain the power of this storm and explaining how wind vanes would not withstand it. And I can tell you the kind of houses that people live in here in the Philippines are also not the typically the kind of houses that could withstand these kinds of storms. Your average house in the U.S. might struggle to withstand these kinds of storms, and here the structures are much more spindly (ph).

The evacuation shelters themselves are struggling to cope with these powerful winds. There's been a report downtown (ph), one of the worse hit areas, (AUDIO BREAK) moved into an evacuation center, had to be moved again because the roof was ripped right off.

And this is all happening after last month. One of the areas that was hit had a bad earthquake, 7.1 magnitude earthquake which killed 200 people and left 5,000 people homeless. Those people were living in tents. And then this typhoon came along. Add to that the strength of the winds knocking over power lines and communications, and government authorities are having trouble trying to reach their counterparts to even assess the damage. And that's why we're hearing now that the casualty toll, the death toll stands at three. That was the last official update we had, but the fear, of course, is as the communications are restored and that information starts to trickle through to the aid agencies and the government authorities that that death toll is expected to rise.

LEMON: Kathy, we're talking about a country that has 97 million people. And according to Chad Meyers, this typhoon is as big as a country. It cut through a wide swath of this country. And as you say, we don't know, we have no idea just how bad it is. And it may take days, possibly weeks to figure that out.

NOVAK: That's right, Don. It's past midnight now and it's obviously very dark. We're going to have to wait for the morning again for people to be able to start to assess the damage, and of course, as I keep saying, the communication lines are cut to these areas that have been hit.

The Philippines is no stranger to typhoons. We get about 20 typhoons a year here. But even for the Philippines, this is stronger than many can remember. As we keep hearing, the strongest typhoon likely around the world this year.

LEMON: I want you to hang with me. And producers, if we can get the rescue video back. Because I want to talk to Kathy about that. We have the rescue video it's from the Bohai Sea, two barges collided. And it's unbelievable to watch these people in the middle of the sea trying to be rescued and get to a retaining wall and get to safety. Are you hearing about rescues? What are you hearing about rescues?

NOVAK: Well, there was a warning earlier in the week. Fortunately the forecast was that the storm was going to be bad. The president got on TV the night before the storm hit to warn people to heed the evacuation orders and leave their homes. A lot of people did do just that.

But of course in any disaster like this you will always have the people who refuse to leave their homes and then have to call for help. We are hearing reports of people who didn't evacuate when they were told to initially, then having to call authorities to try to come and get them.

Of course, the communication situation is going to be difficult for those people to reach out for help. And those are a lot of the people that authorities will be very concerned about. And along the coastline, the video you're describing there, we're hearing of fishermen who depend on these boats for livelihoods and their boats have been swept out to sea as well. You can only be so prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.

LEMON: Kathy Novak in Manila, make sure you stay safe there. We appreciate your coverage.

There is a super typhoon swallowing up the Philippines . It is not done wreaking havoc on that country. Ninety-seven million people, if not more, in its path. So far, it has created death and destruction. We're following it all for you. Chad Myers on the other side of the break with new details and new images for you as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news here on CNN. Imagine if this was happening in the United States. It's happening in the Philippines, and it may be the strongest storm ever recorded on the planet Earth. It is super typhoon Hayian, speeding east to west across the central Philippines with sustained winds now clocked at 155 miles an hour.

And when it first hit land, those winds were 195 miles an hour. And our meteorologist Chad Myers said it may have been higher than that. More than 100,000 Philippinos are hunkered down in shelters, and so far, only three people are confirmed dead. Confirmed. Emphasis on that.

But the Philippines is made up of islands and contact with the islands in Hayian's wake is nonexistent right now. Making matters worse, just last month one of those islands was ravaged by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Aid workers say thousands of people lost their homes and were living in tents when Hayian struck.

I want to CNN's Chad Myers, at the CNN severe weather center in just a moment, but first to my colleague Paula Hancocks. She joins me now from Manila with the very latest. Paula, what's going on there?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, at this point it's half past midnight. So it is literally in the middle of the night, and it's very difficult for officials here to get any kind of idea of how bad and how widespread the damage is.

Now, what they're basically having to do is wait until first light, and then the military will start getting helicopters in the air and getting some aerial views of the situation so they can see that exactly which areas are the hardest hit, which areas need food, water, medicine, and then they will start to coordinate.

Now, of course, that the fact that the communications are down, they can't talk to local officials in these areas because the super typhoon has knocked out communications. It means that the organization of the search and rescue effort is being postponed because they have to wait until they have eyes on to see exactly who needs the help first. It's making things very difficult.

Many roads are blocked as well because of the amount of trees that have been brought down due to the heavy winds. That will be one of the first jobs at first light as well, to try to clear the roads so that the military, some of the aid organizations can get through to take the bare necessities to those who need it. The hope at this point is that many people heeded the warnings to evacuate, and that most people did go into these shelters dotted around the place, and tried to sit out the storm there. And of course until first light, and really it will be a few hours after that.