The Killer Storm

101 East travels to Tanauan, a town in the Philippines hit by Typhoon Haiyan, whose plight has gone largely unreported.



The Philippines sits on a typhoon belt and is battered by super storms every year. But at 4.40am on Friday, November 8, 2013, the central island province of Leyte was hit by the most powerful storm to ever make landfall.

Super Typhoon Haiyan tore through six provinces with winds of over 320 kilometres per hour. Her fury came hours earlier than expected and dragged the sea onshore. The surging waves killed thousands of people and flattened entire towns.

Today, more than four million Filipinos are homeless and displaced in the catastrophic aftermath. Many people have left to seek sanctuary in cities like Manila and Cebu, after 80 percent of the buildings that were in the super typhoon's path were destroyed.

With no clean water, no electricity and very little food, officials have struggled to distribute aid. And looting was widespread in the early days.