Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), 2013
On 8 November 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan — called Yolanda in the Philippines — made landfall as one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, devastating the central Philippines and killing more than six thousand people.
A storm of almost unimaginable power
Haiyan struck the eastern Visayas with sustained winds estimated among the highest ever measured at landfall, equivalent to a strong Category 5. It was so intense that it effectively saturated the top of the tropical-cyclone intensity scale, and it remains a benchmark for what a warming ocean can produce.
The catastrophe in Tacloban
The greatest killer was not the wind but the water. Haiyan drove a storm surge several metres high into Tacloban City and the surrounding coast of Leyte and Samar, sweeping away entire neighbourhoods within minutes. Because "storm surge" was not widely understood, many people who had sheltered from the wind were caught by the sudden wall of seawater. The official death toll exceeded 6,300, with thousands more injured or missing and millions displaced.
Why it was so deadly
- Extreme intensity at landfall, leaving little margin for any structure to survive.
- Storm surge that behaved like a tsunami in low-lying coastal cities.
- A communication gap — the danger of surge was underestimated by many residents despite warnings.
- Dense, exposed coastal populations with limited high ground nearby.
What changed afterward
Haiyan reshaped disaster preparedness in the Philippines and beyond. PAGASA introduced clearer storm-surge warnings and, in the years that followed, added a fifth, highest tropical-cyclone wind signal for super typhoons. Evacuation practices, building standards, and international humanitarian response all drew lasting lessons from the disaster. Learn how the current warnings work on our wind signals page.