Philippines. Province Eastern Samar. Hernani. Town hall. 95 % of the town was destroyed by typhoon Haiyan's winds and storm surge. A group of policemen armed with M-16 machine guns. M-16 is a rifle adapted for semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Typhoon Haiyan, known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, was an exceptionally powerful tropical cyclone that devastated the Philippines. Haiyan is also the strongest storm recorded at landfall in terms of wind speed. Typhoon Haiyan's casualties and destructions occured during a powerful storm surge, an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system. Storm surges are caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea level. 26.11.13 © 2013 Didier Ruef