At least 100 killed in Typhoon Haiyan PT1M28S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2x5zc 620 349 November 8, 2013 Taiphoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, probably killed hundreds of people in and around one Philippine town, a government minister who toured the area said on Saturday. ""I think hundreds,"" Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said on ABS-CBN television when asked how many people had died in the coastal town of Palo and surrounding villages that he visited on devastated Leyte island. Palo and the neighbouring city of Tacloban were struck by devastating storm surges early on Friday as Super Typhoon Haiyan began scything through major central islands, disaster officials have said. Devastation: Houses destroyed by the strong winds caused by typhoon Haiyan at Tacloban. Mr Petilla, who is from Palo, was sent by Philippine President Benigno Aquino to the island, and surveyed the damage from a helicopter. ""We saw 24 corpses in Palo, but officials there reported to us that there are people in nearby areas planning to bring their dead to the town centre,"" he said. ""Palo, Ormoc, Burauen ... Carigara, they all looked the same. The buildings were all unroofed and littered with fallen trees,"" he said, describing the devastation in some of the other Leyte towns and cities that he visited. However, the casualty figures in these other areas of Leyte were lower, he said. Haiyan triggered landslides and storm surges, destroyed Tacloban's airport, cut power and phone lines and damaged crops before heading to Vietnam. The Philippine Red Cross received a request for 100 body bags in Tacloban, secretary-general Gwen Pang said. More than 4 million Filipinos were affected by Haiyan, mostly in central provinces in Visayas, before the storm left the Philippines at noon, the government said. The Philippines was the nation most affected by natural disasters in 2012, suffering more than 2000 deaths, according to the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. On October 15, 222 were killed in Visayas after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. High winds have swept about half of the Philippines" sugar cane-growing areas and a third of its rice-producing land, according to Commodity Weather Group in Bethesda, Maryland. ""Winds were so intense in this system that a lot of the crop is just going to be flattened,"" said David Streit, an agricultural meteorologist with CWG. As much as 20 to 35 per cent of the rice and sugar in those areas might be damaged, he said. Southern Leyte Governor Roger Mercado said the dense clouds and heavy rain made the day seem almost as dark as night. "When you're faced with such a scenario, you can only pray, and pray, and pray," Mr Mercado said. AFP, Bloomberg and agencies