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Super Typhoon Haiyan: One Year After the Destruction | The Weather Channel
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Super Typhoon Haiyan: One Year After the Destruction

  • Haiyan Landfall:  4:40 a.m. Nov. 8, 2013, local time in Guiuan, Philippines.
  • Worst Impacts: Tacloban City and Tanauan. The location of Tacloban City, at the top end of San Pedro Bay, made it vulnerable to deadly storm surge flooding.
  • Winds: Maximum sustained winds were estimated to be up to 195 mph at landfall, with gusts up to 235 mph.
  • Ranking: Fourth strongest tropical cyclone in history.

Last year, on Nov. 8, Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of strongest tropical cyclones in history, made landfall in the Philippines. The vicious storm destroyed villages, killed more than 6,000 people and changed lives forever.

The path to rebuilding after Yolanda, as the storm is know in the Philippines, has been slow. Only 100 of the 14,500 permanent homes that were promised have been built, leaving thousands of people in tents and crowded bunkhouses, USA Today reports. The government has blamed delays on bureaucracy, availability of land for resettlement and scarce resources.

As of September, the government has completed only six of 43 damaged ports, 213 of 19,600 classrooms, 21 of 161 civic centers and three of 34 bridges, according to MSN News.

"The recovery plans are based on the principle of 'build back better' by focusing on long-term, sustainable efforts to reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen capacities of communities to cope with future hazard events," Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma told reporters.

(MORE: Haiyan One of the Strongest Tropical Cyclones)

Filipinos will mark the anniversary in solemn and celebratory ways. Commemorations include a Mass to bless the dead, a city walk, rock concert and a "paddle out" to the bay that swamped Tacloban, according to USA Today.

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In Tanauan, Mayor Pel Tecson is renovating the public plaza where 600 people lie in a mass grave. A memorial wall will list names, but a controversial plan calls for covering the makeshift cemetery with a grass-and-concrete park.

"We need to rehabilitate the area, so people feel comfortable and don't feel scared of it," Tecson said.

In Bogo City in Cebu province, among the areas hit hard by Haiyan, 200 houses will be turned over to displaced families on Nov. 9, a day after the anniversary, GMA News said.

(PHOTOS: Damage Left By Haiyan)

 

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