Evacuations as Super Typhoon Haiyan hits Philippines Locals film Typhoon Haiyan as it strikes Residents in the Phillippines document the torrential conditions of Typhoon Haiyan as it hits the country by sharing videos on social media. PT1M28S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2x5zc 620 349 November 8, 2013 - 6:04PM Manila: A powerful typhoon has slammed into the Philippines" central islands, whipping up waves as high as 4.5 metres with winds gusting up to 275 kilometres per hour. Millions of people have been forced to move to high ground and storm shelters in 20 provinces as typhoon Haiyan lashed the islands of Leyte and Samar. Philippine president Benigno Aquino warned Filipinos they face calamity and urged people in the path of the giant storm to make all possible precautions. Super Typhoon Haiyan is seen approaching the Philippines in this Japan Meteorological Agency handout image taken on Thursday. Photo: Reuters/Japan Meteorological Agency The maximum category-five level typhoon cut power lines and phone lines and grounded air and sea transport. Officials said it was too early to know the extent of damage. Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, passed just north of Cebu, the country's second largest city where 2.5 million people live. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration said the storm was generating winds of 235km/h and gusts of 275km/h. Click on the icons for more information Earlier it was reported that the typhoon was generating winds of 313km/h and gusts of 378km/h, according to the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre. That would have made Haiyan the strongest storm since Super Typhoon Tip in 1979. Haiyan was expected to hit Samar island, about 600km south-east of Manila, then cut across the central and southern Philippines before exiting into the South China Sea late on Saturday. Authorities warned more than 12 million people were at risk from Typhoon Haiyan. Survivors of a deadly earthquake fled their tent shelters as the typhoon's approach triggered evacuations, shut schools and cancelled flights. In Cebu, where 12 died after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the Visayas island on October 15, about 200 families have fled their homes, the local government information office said in a posting on Twitter. Forced evacuation is ongoing in the northern part of the province of Bohol, where 209 people were killed by the earthquake, the Philippine Information Agency said on Twitter. The typhoon, which was advancing with a giant, 600km front, was expected to hit areas still recovering from a deadly 2011 storm and a 7.1-magnitude quake last month. A local official in Bohol said at least 5000 people were still living in tents while waiting for new homes. The Philippines, battered by about 20 cyclones a year, was most affected in the world by natural disasters in 2012 with more than 2000 deaths, according to a report by the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. Monsoon rains swamped more than half of the Metro Manila region in August, killing at least 27 and shutting offices and financial markets for two days. Tropical cyclone Usagi had winds as strong as 215 kilometres per hour and maximum gusts of 250 kilometres per hour when it hit the Batanes islands in northern Philippines in September. Haiyan could intensify and surpass Usagi as the strongest to hit the Philippines in 2013, weather reports said. The nation's highest storm alert of 4 may be raised as Haiyan moves closer, with winds strong enough to topple as much as 80 per cent of trees on its path, flatten rice fields, rip off roofs and bring down small houses and electric posts. "We urge the public to heed our warnings," Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma told reporters in Manila. Don't wait for danger to become imminent before evacuating. The government has put in place relief supplies worth 195 million pesos ($4.8 million) in Samar and Leyte islands in the Visayas where Haiyan is forecast to land first tomorrow, Coloma said. Typhoon Ketsana killed more than 400 people when it swamped Manila and parts of Luzon in 2009. Storm Washi killed more than 1200 people, mostly in Mindanao, in December 2011. At least 222 died in the October 15 earthquake in the Visayas. Among the strongest typhoons to have crossed the Philippines is Storm Durian in 2006 with gusts as strong as 320km/h, according to the weather bureau. AFP, Bloomberg and Lindsay Murdoch