Mega storm leaves trail of destruction Dawn in Philippines expected to reveal damage from powerful typhoon

"The winds were the strongest that I felt in more than 20 years," resident tells CNN Once dawn breaks in Philippines, military helicopters will take aerial survey "Around 20" people drown after storm surge, state news agency says, citing TV reports The storm is one of the strongest ever observed As dawn broke Saturday in the Philippines, the devastation of Super Typhoon Haiyan was expected to become better known a day after the storm -- perhaps the strongest ever -- rampaged across the central isles of the archipelago. An early report by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council indicated at least three people were killed, but there were widespread fears of a much higher death toll. At least seven people were hurt, according the council's report on Friday. The destruction is expected to be catastrophic. Storm clouds covered the entire Philippines, stretching 1,120 miles -- equal to a distance between Florida and Canada. The deadly wind field, or tropical storm force winds, covered an area the size of Montana or Germany. The typhoon first roared onto the country's eastern island of Samar at 4:30 a.m. Friday, flooding streets and knocking out power and communications in many areas of the region of Eastern Visayas, and then continued its march, barreling into five other Philippine islands. Then, predawn Saturday, it headed toward Vietnam. Haiyan weakened Saturday and was no longer a super typhoon, rather a typhoon with sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph). But the storm could return to super typhoon status Saturday. The center of Haiyan will land again Sunday morning near the Vietnamese cities of Da Nang and Hue. Philippine military helicopters were scheduled to take aerial surveys of the damage Saturday. Relief agencies in Manila were expected to begin traveling as long as 18 hours to reach the worst hit isles. Meanwhile, Haiyan was over the South China Sea on Saturday morning. After the storm passed over his family's home in Cebu City, Chris Ducker told CNN by phone Saturday that his family was safe, but "it's been quite a harrowing day to say the least." Part of his roof was ripped off, leaking water, he said. When Haiyan hit Cebu City on Friday morning, it awakened Ducker. "The first thing I noticed straightaway as soon as my eyes opened was the howling of the winds around the house," said Ducker, whose home is in the mountains with a 360-degree view. "I've never experienced winds like this in my entire existence. I've lived in this country for 13 years and I've been through a few earthquakes, I've been through plenty of these storms. We get hit quite regularly with storms, as you probably already know. But, yes, this was something else. The rain, when I looked out of the window, the rain wasn't falling. The rain was being pushed almost at, you know, a 100-degree angle right in front of our house. It was pretty incredible," he added. Clarson Fruelda, also of Cebu City, said residents were cleaning up dirt, leaves, coconuts, and tree branches from their homes Friday afternoon, when the storm had passed. A CNN iReporter, she described the Filipino spirit as "waterproof." "The winds were the strongest that I felt in more than 20 years," Fruelda told CNN. "These past few weeks were really tough for my wife and I and probably for Cebuanos as well since it was just a few weeks ago when we were hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake