Powerful Typhoon Haiyan causes devastation in the Philippines

One of the strongest storms ever to make landfall cut a path of destruction through several islands, leading to early, unconfirmed estimates of as many as 10,000 dead.

The storm affected 4.28 million people in about 270 towns and cities spread across 36 provinces in the central Philippines.

Haiyan is the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines this year and the third Category 5 typhoon to make landfall in the Philippines since 2010.

Tacloban city

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the deadliest storm in Philippine history was Tropical Storm Thelma, which flooded the town of Ormoc, on Leyte Island, on Nov. 15, 1991, and killed more than 5,000 people.

The second deadliest was Typhoon Bopha, which hit a southern island, Mindanao, on Dec. 3, 2012, and killed 1,900 people.

A tropical cyclone is an all-encompassing term that includes typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones, which have different names depending on where they form.

Since 1970, the Philippines has been hit by more tropical cyclones than any country on earth except for China, according to the National Hurricane Center.

On average, about 30 tropical cyclones form in the western Pacific Ocean each year, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reports.

A - Tacloban; B - Sibuyan

According to data from the warning center, an October record of seven typhoons developed in the western Pacific Ocean last month.

That doesn't include Cyclone Phailin, which became the strongest system to make landfall in India since 1999, coming ashore in the eastern state of Odisha in October and killing at least 44 people.

Storms that form in the Indian Ocean — a separate "basin" from the Western Pacific — are known as cyclones.

A woman walks past toppled cars outside a church in Tacloban on Nov. 16.

Typhoon victims rush to get relief goods from a U.S. Navy Sea Hawk helicopter in Salcedo, Samar Island, Philippines, on Nov. 16. International aid began to trickle into some of the hardest-hit areas of the typhoon-ravaged Philippines, more than a week after the most powerful storm ever to hit land devastated the islands and killed thousands.

A teddy bear is hung out to dry in a part of Tolosa devastated by Typhoon Haiyan on Nov. 16.

Despite thick oil slicking his hands, 14-year-old Giray Boreros uses a hacksaw to collect scrap iron in the devastated fishing town of Estancia, Philippines, on Nov. 15. Typhoon Haiyan hit the town with such force that a barge ran aground, spilling approximately 1.4 million liters of oil into the bay, according to the town's mayor.

Filipino workers fill a large grave with body bags at the Basper public cemetery in the typhoon-hit city of Tacloban, central Philippines on Nov. 14.

Dominador Artoge holds his duck on Nov. 14 which he rescued as it swam ashore following the typhoon that lashed Tacloban. Artoge's family named the duck "Landa," (for Yolanda), the local name of the typhoon.

An aerial view of a demolished coastal town on Eastern Samar Island is seen on Nov. 14 in Leyte, Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan which ripped through Philippines over the weekend has been described as one of the most powerful typhoons ever to hit land, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.

Seven months pregnant Sally Reyes, 29, cries for mercy to board a military C-130 plane at the airport in the devastated city of Tacloban, on Nov. 12. Thousands of typhoon survivors swarmed the airport on Tuesday seeking a flight out, but only a few hundred made it, leaving behind a shattered, rain-lashed city short of food and water and littered with countless bodies.