On November 8, 2013, Typhoon Yolanda , a super typhoon of unprecedented power , made landfall among the islands of the Philippines causing massive devastation across multiple islands. Particularly affected were many of the poorest communities whose already stressed circumstances were even further com promised by the storm. Yolanda decimated entire regions as it made landfall five times while crossing over the central Philippine islands.
The storm affected 4 provinces and 10,436 barangays in 575 municipalities when it hit land with sustained winds of 196mph and even stronger gusts which ripped off roofs, collapsed buildings, shattered windows and inundated coastal regions with an incredible storm surge. The storm surge swallowed houses and people, destroyed boats and fishing inputs and left the majority of homes either completely destroyed or uninhabitable .
In the aftermath, UNOCHA reports place the number of affected people at 13.28 million. As of the 22nd November 2013 , Yolanda has left dead 4,015 and has displaced 921,356 families/4,330,502 persons. Housing damage reports remain at 1,085,446 (536,313 completely destroyed with another 549,133 partially damaged). Millions of affected persons depend on daily food aid that is provided through local government units; and although food security remains a lower priority for most families; this could change very quickly if food distributions cease without first addressing the core issues surrounding loss of livelihood. Additionally with the extensive damage taken by schools, children have been out of classes and have not yet been able to resume daily activities which is further delaying their capacity to process grief and loss ; as such, many children were observed to be closed off and withdrawn.
MANILA, Philippines - Under a reforming president, the Philippines emerged as a rising economic star in Asia but the trail of death and destruction left by Typhoon Yolanda has highlighted a key weakness: fragile and patchy infrastructure after decades of neglect and corruption.
Authorities fear that the storm that tore through Leyte province in the country's east has killed thousands. More than 600,000 people have been displaced. Low rates of insurance in the Philippines mean the disaster is likely to sap government finances but analysts say it might not slow growth significantly because of the small role the affected region plays in the wider economy.
Yolanda's devastation, however, underlines the pressing need to spend more money to build hard assets such as more roads, ports and power lines — not only to improve living standards but also to better withstand the storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters that strike the country with numbing regularity.

Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, was an exceptionally powerful typhoon that devastated portions of southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, in early November 2013. It is the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 5,500 people in that country alone. Yolanda is also the strongest storm recorded at landfall, and unofficially the fourth strongest typhoon ever recorded in terms of wind speed.

Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan), which is considered one of the strongest typhoons in the planet, did not leave the country without causing heartbreaks and pains to most of our Filipino countrymen. Thousands of lives were lost, multi-million-peso properties were destroyed, especially in the hardly-hit areas, Tacloban in Leyte, Cebu, Ilo-ilo, Antique and Palawan, among others.
In Tacloban City alone, around 10,000 people are feared dead. The city is still without a line of communication and many roads remain impassable as of this posting. Several other towns in the whole province of Leyte cannot be reached by other means of transportation except by chopper and by boat — thus, food supplies and other relief goods cannot be easily brought to the areas.