Super Typhoon Haiyan - Aftermath....

[London_Manila]

Tacloban is a town i know and love and i have been there many times

The news reports from there have left me shell shocked

I just hope they try and get that airport working soon not so easy i know
These people need aid and fast
Being caught up in that must be everyones worst nightmare

[Terpe]

Yolanda survivors desperate for aid


Residents walk through debris and toppled power lines in Tacloban City

Survivors of a super typhoon that may have killed more than 10,000 people in the Philippines were growing increasingly desperate for aid Monday, November 11, as authorities struggled to cope with potentially the country's worst recorded natural disaster.

As the sheer scale of the devastation slowly became clear, rescue workers appeared overwhelmed in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan), which sent tsunami-like waves and merciless winds rampaging across a huge chunk of the archipelago on Friday, November 9.

Hundreds of police and soldiers were deployed to contain looters in Tacloban, the devastated provincial capital of Leyte, while the United States announced it had responded to a Philippine government appeal and was sending military help.

"Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families," high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, told Agence France-Presse on Sunday, November 10, warning of the increasing desperation of survivors.

"People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk.... I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger."

President Benigno Aquino III said while visiting Tacloban on Sunday that looting had become a major concern, after only 20 officers out of the city's 390-strong police force turned up for work.

"So we will send about 300 police and soldiers to take their place and bring back peace and order," he said.

Haiyan, which moved out of the Philippines and into the South China Sea on Saturday, made landfall in Vietnam early Monday, US meteorologists said.

The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) said in an update at 2100 GMT the storm "is currently making landfall" approximately 97 miles (156 kilometers) east south-east of the capital Hanoi, with sustained winds of 75 miles (120 km) per hour.

The typhoon had weakened at sea, striking Vietnam as the equivalent of a category-one hurricane – the weakest on the one-to-five Saffir-Simpson wind-speed scale.

Even so, more than 600,000 people were evacuated, with flooding and heavy rain expected.

The Vietnamese government website said Sunday that five people had died while preparing for the storm.

Farther north, six members of a cargo boat were also missing off the Chinese province of Hainan, state media in China reported.

Reaching them is difficult

Up to four million children could be affected by the disaster, the United Nations Children's Fund warned Sunday.

"We are rushing to get critical supplies to children who are bearing the brunt of this crisis," said UNICEF Philippines representative Tomoo Hozumi.

"Reaching the worst-affected areas is very difficult," he said. "But we are working around the clock."

Authorities were struggling to understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster, let alone react to it, with the regional police chief for Leyte saying initial government estimates showed 10,000 people were believed to have died in that province alone.

Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told reporters in Tacloban that the typhoon destroyed up to 80 percent of the structures in its path.

On the neighboring island of Samar, a local disaster chief said 300 people were killed in the small town of Basey.

He added another 2,000 were missing there and elsewhere on Samar, which was one of the first areas hit when Yolanda swept in from the Pacific Ocean as a category-five storm with maximum sustained winds of 315 km (195 miles) an hour, according to the JTWC.

Dozens more people were confirmed killed in other flattened towns and cities across a 600-km stretch of islands through the central Philippines.

As the scale of the disaster began to emerge, an international aid effort ratcheted up.

In Washington, the Pentagon announced that US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had responded to a request from the Philippines for military aid and directed the US Pacific Command to deploy resources.

President Barack Obama said he was "deeply saddened" and added that Washington was "ready to further assist the government's relief and recovery efforts."

UN leader Ban Ki-moon also promised that humanitarian agencies would "respond rapidly to help people in need", while the European Commission said it would give three million euros ($4 million) to help relief efforts.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called Aquino to extend his sympathy, and offered an emergency support package worth six million pounds ($9.6 million).

Deadliest natural disaster

The Philippines endures a seemingly never-ending pattern of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters.

It is located along a typhoon belt and the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific region where many of Earth's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

But if the death toll of more than 10,000 is correct, Yolanda would be the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the country, worse than the 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami that killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people.

Yolanda's maximum sustained wind speeds made it the strongest typhoon in the world this year, and one of the most powerful ever recorded.

Witnesses in Tacloban recalled waves up to 5 meters (16 feet) high surging inland. Aerial photos showed entire neighborhoods destroyed, with trees and buildings flattened by storm surge.

The Philippines country director of the World Food Programme, Praveen Agrawal, who visited Tacloban, said the devastation resembled that of a tsunami.

"All the trees are bent over, the bark has been stripped off, the houses have been damaged. In many cases they have collapsed," he told Agence France-Presse.

"The huge waves came again and again, flushing us out on the street and washing away our homes," Mirasol Saoyi, 27, told Agence France-Presse near Tacloban's seaside sports stadium, where thousands of people gathered.

"My husband tied us together, but still we got separated among the debris. I saw many people drowning, screaming and going under.... I haven't found my husband."

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43393-...oon-ravaged-ph

[Terpe]

Tormented typhoon victims scour for food


Children pull sacks of goods they recovered from abandoned stores

Tormented survivors of a typhoon that is feared to have killed more than 10,000 in the Philippines rummaged for food Sunday, November 10, through debris scattered with corpses, while frenzied mobs looted aid convoys.

Two days after typhoon Yolanda, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, flattened entire towns across part of the Southeast Asian archipelago, desperate survival tactics created fresh horrors.

On the outskirts of Tacloban City, a coastal eastern city of 220,000 where tsunami-like waves destroyed many buildings, Edward Gualberto accidentally stepped on bodies as he raided the wreckage of a home.

Wearing nothing but a pair of red basketball trousers, the father-of-four and village councillor apologized for his shabby appearance and for stealing from the dead.

"I am a decent person. But if you have not eaten in 3 days, you do shameful things to survive," Gualberto told AFP as he dug canned goods from the debris and flies swarmed over the bodies.

"We have no food, we need water and other things to survive."

After half a day's work, he had filled a bag with an assortment of essentials including packs of spaghetti, cans of beer, detergent, soap, canned goods, biscuits and candies.

"This typhoon has stripped us of our dignity... but I still have my family and I am thankful for that."

Desperate aggression fills security vacuum

Elsewhere in Tacloban, other survivors were employing more aggressive means as they took advantage of a security vacuum created when most of the city's police force failed to turn up for work after the typhoon.

Like Gualberto, many said they had not eaten since the typhoon and overwhelmed authorities admitted they were unable to get enough relief supplies into the city.

Some broke through shops that had withstood the typhoon by hammering through glass windows and winching open steel barricades.


Some survivors in Tacloban City employed more aggressive means as they took advantage of a security vacuum there


One desperate meat shop owner brandished a handgun in a failed bid to prevent one mob from entering his shop.

He was ignored and the shop was ransacked. The businessman just silently stood by, waving his gun in the air and shouting. When he realised he had lost the fight, he cursed them and walked away.

Nearby, pastry shop owner Emma Bermejo described the widespread looting as "anarchy,"

"There is no security personnel, relief goods are too slow to arrive. People are dirty, hungry and thirsty. A few more days and they will begin to kill each other," she said.

"This is shameful. We have been hit by a catastrophe and now our businesses are gone. Looted. I can understand if they take our food and water, they can have it. But TV sets? Washing machines?" (READ: Aquino asked to declare 'martial law' in Tacloban)

Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon described some of the looters as "mobsters," after one of his organisation's convoys was ransacked near Tacloban.

Meanwhile, confused men, women and children walked aimlessly along roads strewn with overturned cars and felled power lines, some gagging from the stench of rotting flesh.

A team of military cadaver collectors had been deployed, but the soldiers appeared overwhelmed.

"There are 6 trucks going around the city picking up the dead, but it's not enough," said the driver of one of the vehicles as it wended its way through the streets.

"There are bodies everywhere, we do not have enough people to get to them."


Villagers walk past a dead body laying on damaged breakwater in Tacloban city

Some survivors handed out small letters to passers-by and reporters asking them to contact their relatives to relay their fate.

Many had wounds on their faces and were limping, while all had stories of unimaginable horror.

"The huge waves came again and again, flushing us out on the street and washing away our homes," Mirasol Saoyi, 27, told AFP near the city's seaside sports stadium that withstood the typhoon and where thousand of people had gathered.

"My husband tied us together, but still we got separated among the debris. I saw many people drowning, screaming and going under... I haven't found my husband."

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issue...r-food-yolanda

[andy222]

Tragic. My wife said there was another typhoon expected tomorrow.

[Terpe]

Aquino asked to declare 'martial law' in Tacloban


Widespread looting occurs in Tacloban city

Tacloban officials are urging President Benigno Aquino III to declare a state of emergency in the city, and if needed, martial law, after the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan).

Such declaration will prevent anarchy, according to Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin, who reported that widespread looting is already taking place.

Yaokasin made the appeal in a meeting with the President and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council here Sunday, November 10.

City Administrator Tecson Lim echoed Yaokasin's concern.

The President, however, said the city council must first pass a resolution to that effect and establish there is threat of violence or anarchy. He added he is ready to act on the resolution as long as it's endorsed by the city mayor and the representative of the first district, where Tacloban is situated.

Aquino was reported to have walked out of a briefing with local and national officials Sunday, dismayed with the level of response to the typhoon. He returned to the meeting shortly after. Communications Assistant Secretary Rey Marfil later denied Aquino walked out, saying the President only took a bathroom break.

Chaos in the city

Tacloban was the hardest hit based on initial reports. At least 100 people died in the city, and more reports of casualties are expected as officials continue to assess the damage.

There's widespread looting in malls and establishments as residents scrounge for food and any useful material to help them survive the aftermath of the typhoon.

Rappler reported on Sunday that gunshots were fired outside a jail near the city hall after some prisoners attempted to escape. According to one jail officer, they have recaptured the prisoners.

The government has deployed additional police and military personnel to Tacloban to augment security forces in the city and aid in disaster response efforts

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43363-...al-law-in-city

[DaveW]

My separated wife still has not heard from her mother and sisters who all live in Marabut Samar. Obviously phone lines are down, and today I read that Basey which is only 30 minutes drive away has been hit hard with around "300 deaths" and Guiuan has around "2000 dead".
Very upsetting and worrying. I've been to Tacloban City so many times and seeing it totally destroyed is so shocking.
Watching the people loot Gaisano where we bought our groceries and household stuff was crazy.
I really can't see this place ever recovering. Too much destruction and i'm sure the corruption will get in the way also

[Anakin]

Heart breaking scenes

Who do you think is the best organisation to donate to to see help get to the affected people of the Philippines as quickly and as efectively as possible?
Searches in uk newspapers show up a number of charities who are active in the typhoon disaster areas, but does anyone on here have a preference?
As they know I'm married to a Filipina I'm also being asked this by English friends....

[stevewool]

phils redcross, thats where i have sent and will be sending until some one says there is somewhere better

[gWaPito]

My separated wife still has not heard from her mother and sisters who all live in Marabut Samar. Obviously phone lines are down, and today I read that Basey which is only 30 minutes drive away has been hit hard with around "300 deaths" and Guiuan has around "2000 dead".
Very upsetting and worrying. I've been to Tacloban City so many times and seeing it totally destroyed is so shocking.
Watching the people loot Gaisano where we bought our groceries and household stuff was crazy.
I really can't see this place ever recovering. Too much destruction and i'm sure the corruption will get in the way also

I'm the same....my wife's mother's family living in Iloilo...I picked my boys up this morning, Jane said she hasn't heard anything from them since Thursday evening, their time.

She's a tough one, like she said, what can we do..we got to carry on.

[Anakin]

cheers Steve.

[alesypalsy]

I'm the same....my wife's mother's family living in Iloilo...I picked my boys up this morning, Jane said she hasn't heard anything from them since Thursday evening, their time.
She's a tough one, like she said, what can we do..we got to carry on.

My wife's family, mum who is a stroke victim cannot walk, dad,sisters and bata's all in culaba biliran, We also have no idea if they are ok, dead or alive, the not knowing and not being able to do anything is terrible for all of us...... The worst of it as you know is with it being a bit more remote we don't know how long it will take to get reports of the areas....
God have mercy and I am not a religious type

[gWaPito]

My wife's family, mum who is a stroke victim cannot walk, dad,sisters and bata's all in culaba biliran, We also have no idea if they are ok, dead or alive, the not knowing and not being able to do anything is terrible for all of us...... The worst of it as you know is with it being a bit more remote we don't know how long it will take to get reports of the areas....
God have mercy and I am not a religious type

My mother said yesterday they don't know if Gordon (brother in law) and his wife are dead or alive..their 2 grown up kids (18 and 20 year olds ) here are in a right old state...Gordon married a Filipna in 1985. She came here that year.....They got a boy and girl who stayed behind in UK staying in the family home Gordon had given them...They only left for Philippines for good, this summer, His wife wasn't keen on going back because she'd made a life here but, Gordon being Gordon, he wanted out....With him being a brickie, over the years, he built a house for himself and inlaws. Now, like you, we wait for news

[Terpe]

Typhoon Haiyan: Ships head to Philippines amid devastation

US and British vessels were heading to the Philippines as the UN appealed for aid amid the large-scale devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan.

The US has deployed an aircraft carrier and navy ships, while the UK is sending a naval destroyer.

At least 10,000 people are feared to have been killed and thousands of survivors desperately require aid - but reports say little is getting through.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a state of national calamity.

In a statement, he said the two worst affected provinces, Leyte and Samar, had suffered massive destruction and loss of life.

A huge international relief effort is under way, but journalists and rescue workers at the scene say reaching areas affected by the storm is difficult.

Bernard Kerblat, who is overseeing the UNHCR response to the crisis, said some aircraft had landed in Cebu but distributing aid was difficult because of bad weather and damaged infrastructure.

"The rain is further complicating the effort for light vehicles, including trucks, to penetrate in areas wherever there's still a bridge left intact.

"The other bad news is that within the next 72 hours, we should see the arrival of yet another typhoon."


Large parts of the Philippines have been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan


In Tacloban, Leyte, hundreds have gathered at the airport for supplies or to try and leave the city


Thousands of survivors desperately need aid, including food and water


The Philippine president has declared a state of national calamity

Heartbreaking

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said 1,774 people had been reported dead, 2,487 were reported injured and 82 were missing.

The death toll is expected to rise significantly in coming days.

More than 580,000 people had been displaced and 41,000 houses had been damaged, the NDRRMC added.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described images of the impact of the storm as "heartbreaking".

The UN would launch a large-scale humanitarian plan and allocate $25m (£15.5m) "to fund critical relief efforts", he said.

"Many thousands of people are reported to have died and almost 10 million people have been affected... Let us all show our solidarity with the people of the Philippines at this time of need," he added.

On Tuesday, heavy thunderstorms struck Tacloban, one of the areas worst-hit by the typhoon. Correspondents say driving rain has added to the misery of tens of thousands of people living amid the wreckage of their homes.


BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead: "The typhoon came into this building, ripped off the roof and tossed it 500 metres away"

One of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall, Haiyan - named "Yolanda" by Philippine authorities - struck the coastal provinces of Leyte and Samar on Friday.

It then headed west, sweeping through six central Philippine islands

Air Force Capt Antonio Tamayo told AP news agency the scene in Tacloban, one of the worst-hit areas, was "overwhelming".

"We need more medicine. We cannot give anti-tetanus vaccine shots because we have none.''

Officials said looting was widespread and order was proving difficult to enforce. Correspondents say many ordinary people are simply scavenging for the food and water needed to survive.

The government says it has deployed armoured vehicles to Tacloban to deter looters.

"We are circulating [the vehicles] in the city to show the people, especially those with bad intentions, that the authorities have returned," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas told DZMM radio.

Alison Wallace, chief executive of disaster relief charity Shelterbox, told the BBC that delivering aid safely would be a major concern.

"Security is going to be a big part of the operation," she said.

"We have to make sure that when the aid is delivered that we don't actually make the situation worse by creating difficult scenes for people - the aid has to be delivered fairly [and] with as much safety as possible."



Dead bodies

In a statement, the US said that aircraft carrier USS George Washington and other navy ships should arrive in the Philippines "within 48-72 hours".

"As needed, these ships and aircraft will be able to provide humanitarian assistance, supplies, and medical care in support of the ongoing efforts led by the government and military of the Republic of the Philippines," the statement said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Darling would soon head to the disaster zone from Singapore.

It would take five days to arrive but once in the Philippines would bring engineering and first aid expertise, as well as the use of a Lynx helicopter.

Other countries have also pledged millions of dollars in assistance. Japan is providing $10m and Australia $9m in humanitarian aid, while New Zealand has pledged over $1m.

Reports from Tacloban say soldiers have been distributing food and water to some residents and the US military has sent marines to the city.

However, correspondents say that many in Tacloban have seen no evidence of aid at all.

UN humanitarian official John Ging said: "Many places are strewn with dead bodies".

"The first priority of response teams, once they were able to navigate their way into these areas, is to mobilise the burial of dead bodies because of the public health issues," he said.

"As we get more and more access we find the tragedy of more and more people killed in this typhoon," he added.

Flattened' city

More than nine million people have been affected in the Philippines. Many are now struggling to survive without food, shelter or clean drinking water.

On Tuesday, further details emerged of the extent of damage caused by the storm:

More than 1,200 deaths were reported in Leyte province. Tacloban, its provincial capital, was largely flattened by a massive storm surge. Hundreds of people gathered at the airport desperate for food and water, others trying to get a flight out
An aid convoy travelling to Tacloban was attacked, with troops shooting dead two of the attackers, reports said
At least 200 were killed in Samar province, the NDRRMC said. Samar's exposed easterly town of Guiuan - population 40,000 - is said to be largely destroyed
In Cebu, 63 people have been reported dead.
A 4.8-magnitude earthquake hit San Isidro, Bohol at 05:30 GMT, the US Geological Survey said. The quake was also felt in Cebu City, the government said. There have been no reported casualties so far.

Authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people before the typhoon arrived, but many evacuation centres - schools, churches and government buildings - proved unable to withstand the winds and storm surges.

Haiyan brought sustained winds of 235km/h (147mph), with gusts of 275 km/h (170 mph) and waves as high as 15m (45ft). In some places, as much as 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain fell.

On Monday, the typhoon weakened into a tropical storm and reached Vietnam. State media said at least 13 people had died, although the fatalities appeared to have taken place during preparations for the storm, before it made landfall.

The storm then moved into southern China, triggering rainstorms in Guangxi province, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The heavy rains have left one dead and affected nearly one million people in Guangxi, Xinhua added

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24895620

[alesypalsy]

We have just heard news that our family are all ok and alive and well, phew,, the wifes spirits are lifted and we are much better feeling in the house,

they are in Culaba biliran leyte and have said any wooden houses are either broken beyond repair or blown away, the place is no way as badly affected as the major hit zones, there is a generator in the town where our sister charged her cell phone and she got a smart phone signal on the highway,

i hope others awaiting to hear from loved ones will hear soon

[gWaPito]

We have just heard news that our family are all ok and alive and well, phew,, the wifes spirits are lifted and we are much better feeling in the house,

they are in Culaba biliran leyte and have said any wooden houses are either broken beyond repair or blown away, the place is no way as badly affected as the major hit zones, there is a generator in the town where our sister charged her cell phone and she got a smart phone signal on the highway,

i hope others awaiting to hear from loved ones will hear soon

I'm very happy for you
We keep praying for the others

[Terpe]

We have just heard news that our family are all ok and alive and well, phew,, the wifes spirits are lifted and we are much better feeling in the house,

they are in Culaba biliran leyte and have said any wooden houses are either broken beyond repair or blown away, the place is no way as badly affected as the major hit zones, there is a generator in the town where our sister charged her cell phone and she got a smart phone signal on the highway,

i hope others awaiting to hear from loved ones will hear soon

Glad to hear that
We're still waiting and hoping..

[Rosie1958]

Wonderful news, Alesypalsy!

[Rosie1958]

There are now several threads relating to different aspects of the super typhoon aftermath and I thought it might be useful to repeat some information in this main thread about charitable donations which I posted in reply to another thread in Loose Talk, Chat, etc. For anyone thinking about making a donation from the UK, please consider the following:-

I was going to make my donation to Philippines Red Cross, until I read on Sky News that the British government has now also pledged to match the first £5m donated to the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) which is made up of 14 charities – their mission statement is “together we are stronger” and an example of some of those charities participating is:-

British Red Cross
Oxfam
Age International
Christian Aid
Merlin
Save the Children
World Vision
Action Aid

The government had already committed £10m in aid, so the additional £5m will increase the UK’s support to £15m in total. Donating £100 in this way will actually mean that £200 will be raised. There is also a UK Gift Aid donation that will add 25% to the donation of a UK Taxpayer. So a £100 donation then becomes valued at £225….. more for the desperate Filipino people.

The DEC website is: http://dec.org.uk/appeals/philippines-typhoon-appeal

Our government has endorsed DEC by making an agreement with them so that’s good enough for me, particularly because of the added incentive mentioned above as well as gift aid. However, if there are any cash collections at local supermarkets for Philippine Red Cross, I will give to them too.

I see that the Queen has also made a personal donation, a wonderful example!

[Terpe]

Survivors flee Tacloban nightmare


Survivors of the super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan, board a C-130 military plane bound for Cebu at Tacloban airport, Leyte, on November 12, 2013

Thousands of people Wednesday, November 13, jostled and begged for seats on scarce flights out of a demolished Tacloban City, as anger at the slow pace of aid reaching the disaster zone turned deadly.

News emerged that 8 people were crushed to death Tuesday, November 12, when a huge crowd of survivors from Yolanda (Haiyan) – one of the strongest storms ever – rushed a government rice warehouse in Alangalang town, 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the devastated city of Tacloban.

"One wall of our warehouses collapsed and 8 people were crushed and killed instantly" in Tuesday's (November 12) incident, said Rex Estoperez, spokesman for the National Food Authority.

Five days after Yolanda ripped apart entire coastal communities, the situation in Tacloban was becoming ever more dire with essential supplies low and increasingly desperate survivors jostling at the airport.

"Everyone is panicking," Captain Emily Chang, a navy doctor, told Agence France-Presse.

"They say there is no food, no water. They want to get of here," she added, saying doctors at the airport had run out of medicine, including antibiotics.

"We are examining everyone but there's little we can do until more medical supplies arrive."

The United Nations estimates 10,000 people may have died in Tacloban, the provincial capital of Leyte province where 5-meter (16-foot) waves flattened nearly everything in their path as they swept hundreds of meters across the low-lying land.

However, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said late Tuesday he believed that the toll was "too much." adding that 2,500 "is the figure we're working on."

'We may die from hunger'

At Tacloban airport, Agence France-Presse journalists witnessed exhausted and famished survivors pushing and shoving each other to get on one of the few flights out of the city, where festering bodies still littered many streets.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona admitted authorities were struggling to deal with the sheer numbers of the dead.

He told radio station DZMM they had "delayed" the retrieval of bodies "because we ran out of body bags."

"We hope to speed it up when we get more body bags."

"We have been here for 3 days and we still cannot get to fly out," said a frail Angeline Conchas, who was waiting for space on a plane with her 7-year-old daughter Rogiel Ann.

Her family was trapped on the 2nd floor of their building as flood waters rose around them.

They made their way to safety by clinging on to an electricity cable to move to a higher structure where they stayed until the waters subsided.

"It is a good thing the electricity had already been cut off or we would have died," Conchas said.

"We made it out, but now we may die from hunger."

UN's Amos: Much more needed

The UN estimates more than 11.3 million people have been affected with 673,000 made homeless, since Yolanda smashed into the nation's central islands on Friday, November 8.

Overwhelmed and under-resourced rescue workers have been unable to provide food, water, medicines, shelter and other relief supplies to many survivors, and desperation has been building across the disaster zones.

On Tuesday UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos praised the international community's reaction but said much more needed to be done in a disaster of such magnitude.

The international relief effort is building momentum with many countries pledging help. The United States and Britain are sending warships carrying thousands of sailors to the Philippines.

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which has 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft aboard, is heading from Hong Kong with 5 other US warships, while 3 amphibious vessels are also being deployed.

The carrier group is expected to reach the Philippines later this week, the Pentagon said, bringing much needed supplies. But for a shattered population already in dire straits, any delay is too long.

"People are desperate because they have nothing in Tacloban," Marco Boasso of the International Organization for Migration said.

Hundreds of soldiers and police were patrolling the streets and manning checkpoints in Tacloban Wednesday to try to prevent pillaging.

Aquino: Lower death toll

President Aquino has declared a "state of national calamity," allowing the government to impose price controls and quickly release emergency funds.

Speaking in a CNN interview, he said that local officials who feared 10,000 had died in Tacloban may have been "too close" to the disaster to give an accurate toll.

"Being in the center of the destruction... there is emotional trauma associated with that particular estimate," he said.

"The figure I have right now is 2,000... so far about 2,000, 2,500 is the figure we're working on," Aquino added, though he admitted the toll still could rise.

The latest official government death toll stands at 1,798, although authorities have said they have not come close to accurately assessing the number of bodies lying amid the rubble or swept out to sea.

And international aid groups said they feared what was known now was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Obviously the situation in Tacloban is appalling but we are also very concerned about outlying islands," Patrick Fuller, Red Cross spokesman in the Asia-Pacific, told AFP.

"There are a lot of them and I think it will be days, if not weeks, before we have a clear picture."

Haiyan's sustained winds, when they hit Samar island (where it first hit land), reached 315 km (195 miles) an hour, making it the strongest typhoon in the world this year and one of the most powerful ever recorded.

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43599-...oban-nightmare

[Terpe]

Philippine Typhoon Haiyan survivors 'desperate' for aid


Tacloban resident: "People of the world, come to my city. We need help very badly"

People are growing increasingly desperate for food, water and medical supplies in typhoon-hit parts of the Philippines, a congressman has warned.

Martin Romualdez, from badly-hit Leyte, said a greater sense of urgency was needed to get aid to those in need.

The UN says more than 11 million people may have been affected and some 673,000 displaced by Typhoon Haiyan.

On Tuesday, eight people died when a wall collapsed as thousands of survivors mobbed a food warehouse.

Police and soldiers were unable to stop the looters, who took more than 100,000 sacks of rice from the government facility in Alangalang, Leyte, said Rex Estoperez, spokesman for the National Food Authority.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Philippine President Benigno Aquino said the death toll may be lower than first thought.

The widely reported figure of 10,000 killed may have come from officials facing "emotional trauma", he said, and the real figure was more likely up to 2,500.

But he said 29 municipalities had yet to be contacted to establish the number of victims there.

The president also warned that storms like Haiyan - known in the Philippines as Yolanda - were becoming more frequent, and there should be "no debate" that climate change was happening.

He said either the world committed to action on climate change "or let us be prepared to meet disasters".

Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms ever recorded on land - hit the coastal provinces of Leyte and Samar on Friday.

It swept through six central Philippine islands before going on to kill several people in Vietnam and southern China.

Philippines disaster management officials have put the confirmed death toll at 2,275, with another 3,665 injured. More than 80 people are listed as missing.

But Martin Romualdez told the BBC he believed the government was giving "conservative" estimates of the death toll "so as not to cause undue alarm".

"Just viewing the disaster's scope - its magnitude and the areas affected - we believe that the 10,000 figure is more probable," he said. "As we start cleaning up we are finding more bodies."

Massive destruction

He said the "sense of urgency should be stepped up at the national level as the international relief organisations come in".


Survivors are spending a sixth day seeking food and shelter amid complaints that aid is not reaching victims


Rescue teams are struggling to reach isolated places


Thousands of desperate people descended on a food warehouse in Alangalang on Tuesday to take whatever they could


More than 140,000 homes have been damaged by the typhoon


Hundreds are queuing for relief goods including water and medicines

"Better co-ordination is needed, because we are seeing a lot of relief goods, medicines, equipment, coming in, but it's not reaching the people affected, thereby causing a sense of hopelessness and desperation in many of those who have survived and are now fleeing their homes, their municipalities, their locales, out of sheer desperation."

He said the damage to Tacloban was "so massive in scale and so extensive in our areas that we literally would have to rebuild from scratch".


Congressman Martin Romualdez, who represents the 1st District of Leyte: "There is desperation and we are losing hope"


"We thought it was our last day": Survivors talk to the BBC

"We just imagine it, our area, as a ground zero, as if a nuclear bomb had exploded above us."

Relief operations are being stepped up, but damage to transport links and continuing bad weather have hindered aid distribution.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Tacloban - a city of 220,000 on Leyte island which is particularly badly affected - says residents are becoming angry at the lack of progress and increasing breakdown in security.

Planes are arriving at the airport, but bringing little in and only taking people out, and there is little sign of a co-ordinated relief operation, he says.

Philippine armed forces spokesman Ramon Zagala told the BBC teams were struggling to reach isolated places.

"Although we have a lot of helicopters at the moment, it's really a challenge for us to bring [aid] to all the places and [bring] the number of goods that are needed."

But Philippine Interior Minister Mar Roxas told the BBC that relief efforts were on track.

"Our first priorities were, number one, to establish law and order; number two, to bring food and water to the people; and, number three, to recover the cadaver bags," he said.

"[Now] law and order has been stabilised, the supply of food and water is beginning - I'm not saying that we're anywhere near it - [but it] is beginning to be stabilised... and now we are concentrating on recovery of cadavers as well as on the distribution of the food and the relief that is coming in."

On Tuesday the UN launched an appeal for $301m (£190m) to help survivors. It has already released $25m to meet immediate needs.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says 11.3 million people are in need of vital goods and services, because of factors such as lack of food, healthcare and access to education and livelihoods.

The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has also launched an appeal.

US and British navy vessels are heading to the Philippines and several nations have pledged millions of dollars in aid.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24922492

[Terpe]

So where is the aid? - Jonathan Head - BBC News, Leyte

So where is the aid? That was the question on everyone's lips in the district of Pawing, outside Tacloban.

Nearly every house has either been flattened or left without roofs or windows. People are living amid the sodden debris that was once their homes.

They are wet, hungry, and increasingly angry. I watched them making the long trek into Tacloban in search of food, and returning empty-handed. One long queue outside a food warehouse quickly broke down into a free-for-all, people grabbing whatever they could.

The local government was pretty much wiped out by the typhoon. That's why the central government has taken over the running of Tacloban. But it is almost invisible. Without power or phone communications, people have no idea whether anything is being done for them.

The airport, while badly battered, is functioning. Planes come and go, several every hour. But they are not bringing much in, only taking people out. The Philippine army and police are very visible there, much less so in the rest of the city.

By day five of a disaster like this, you would expect to see some preparations for a scaled-up aid programme at the airport. There are still very few signs of that here. Instead, there are still corpses, lying uncollected, at the end of the runway.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24922492

[tiger31]

now iv,e just read that lots of prisoners have escaped from the local nick ,so now murderers,rapists etc are on the prowl to compound the peoples misery .The army really need to get a grip of stuff like this what a nightmare

[Dedworth]

So where is the aid? - Jonathan Head - BBC News, Leyte

So where is the aid? That was the question on everyone's lips in the district of Pawing, outside Tacloban.

Nearly every house has either been flattened or left without roofs or windows. People are living amid the sodden debris that was once their homes.

They are wet, hungry, and increasingly angry. I watched them making the long trek into Tacloban in search of food, and returning empty-handed. One long queue outside a food warehouse quickly broke down into a free-for-all, people grabbing whatever they could.

The local government was pretty much wiped out by the typhoon. That's why the central government has taken over the running of Tacloban. But it is almost invisible. Without power or phone communications, people have no idea whether anything is being done for them.

The airport, while badly battered, is functioning. Planes come and go, several every hour. But they are not bringing much in, only taking people out. The Philippine army and police are very visible there, much less so in the rest of the city.

By day five of a disaster like this, you would expect to see some preparations for a scaled-up aid programme at the airport. There are still very few signs of that here. Instead, there are still corpses, lying uncollected, at the end of the runway.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24922492

Maybe the BBC ought to ask Baroness Amos - UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator - she's staying in a 5 star Manila hotel unless she's already hot footed it back to NYC

[Pete/London]

Its terrible that it takes so long to get help on the ground.
There was a discussion on newsnight last night on this very subject and it was said that the aid agencies tend to compete with each other to be first on the scene and then just get in the way.
Apparently 40% of aid for Haiti was spent on luxury accommodation and expensive cars for the aid workers, and the people of Haiti were not given any input as to where the aid was to be distributed.

[Terpe]

Typhoon Haiyan: eight die in food stampede amid desperate wait for aid

Thousands storm rice warehouse in the devastated central Philippines while Haiyan relief effort flounders

Eight people have been killed in the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines after thousands of Haiyan survivors stormed a government-owned rice warehouse seeking food supplies.

The Philippines National Food Authority said police and soldiers stood by helpless as people streamed into the warehouse in Alangalang, Leyte province – an area where hunger and desperation are running high after Haiyan made landfall early on Friday morning, ravaging vast swaths of Leyte and Samar islands. The security forces could only watch as more than 100,000 sacks of rice were carried away.

The eight were crushed to death when a wall in the warehouse collapsed, spokesman Rex Estoperez told the Associated Press. Other rice warehouses were dotted around the region, he said, refusing to give their locations for security reasons.

The Philippines government has come under fire for failing to deliver aid adequately or quickly enough, with growing frustration in the hardest hit areas, such as Tacloban, the capital of Leyte province where dead bodies have piled up on the streets and residents have resorted to looting to find food.

A military official told the Guardian on Wednesday that the government was aiming to double its relief efforts within the next two days. Attempts to provide help were buoyed by the expected arrival of two extra US military C-130 planes and one additional Australian air force plane.

Three relief distribution points were being set up in the Leyte island towns of Tacloban, Guiuan and Ormoc, the official said, with the main aid effort operating out of neighbouring Cebu instead of Manila, the capital, which is 360 miles to the north.

More than 10,000 people are feared to have been killed in the Philippines due to Haiyan, most of them in Leyte province, with aid workers suggesting that number may rise significantly. As many as 29 municipalities have still not been reached due to impassable roads and downed telecommunications.

President Benigno Aquino III said on Tuesday that he believed the number killed to be far lower – around 2,500 – and told CNN that the 10,000 figure may have come from an "emotional" official, with government figures alleging that the death toll stands at 2,275. The UN has said more than 670,000 people have been displaced and a total of 11.3 million people directly affected by the super storm.

International relief efforts intensified with the launch of a UN appeal and the dispatch of American, British and Japanese troops to the affected regions. But minimal amounts of aid have reached the worst‑hit areas.

More than 3,000 people surged on to the tarmac of Tacloban airport on Tuesday morning in the hope of flying out on the two Philippine air force planes that had just arrived.

Babies and sick or elderly people were given priority but only a few hundred were able to leave. Others were held back by soldiers and police. Many had walked for hours and camped at the base overnight.

"I was pleading with the soldiers. I was kneeling and begging because I have diabetes," said Helen Cordial as she lay on a stretcher, shaking. "Do they want me to die in this airport? They are stone-hearted," she told the Associated Press.

Dean Smith, an Australian who has been living with his family near Palo, Leyte province, for the last five years, told the Guardian that he waited eight hours to be able to get one of the first commercial flights out of Tacloban to Cebu. On the way to the airport he said he saw "horrifying things that I know I have seen but my brain hasn't processed yet".

He described scenes of chaos in the city centre, where police were stealing money from the local cashpoints, people in cars were refusing to drive the injured to get help, and the bloated body of a man floating in dirty water was being gnawed at by a dog.

"What people have gone through, what they have seen – there is going to be a lot of post-traumatic stress after this event I assure you," he said shakily. "No one has ever seen anything like this."

Having arrived on Tuesday in Cebu, Smith was planning to stock up on food, medicine and water and take it back to his Palo home, where his wife, six children, a 92-year-old grandmother and a pregnant nanny were all desperately awaiting supplies. He departed for Tacloban early on Wednesday morning.

Domestic and international relief efforts were being hampered by wet weather, poor communications and damaged infrastructure, with aircraft only able to land in Tacloban during daylight hours because the air control tower had been destroyed by Haiyan. Unsubstantiated reports of aid convoys being attacked by hungry victims circulated, with the Telegraph reporting that communist rebels had been killed whilst trying to intercept a Red Cross convoy destined for the island of Samar.

Still, Corizon Soliman, secretary of the Philippine department of social welfare and development, said aid had so far reached a third of the city's 45,000 families.

However armed forces spokesman Ramon Zagala told the BBC that relief workers were struggling to deliver aid for a number of reasons.

"The area is very vast and the number of helicopters – although we have a lot of helicopters at the moment – it's really a challenge for us to bring [aid] to all the places and [bring] the number of goods that are needed."

The BBC quoted a Leyte official as saying that although relief goods like medicine and equipment were arriving into the province "it's just not reaching the people affected".

The UN released $25m (£15.7m) in emergency funds for shelter materials and household items, and for assistance with emergency health services, safe water supplies and sanitation.

The UN aid chief, Valerie Amos, launched an appeal for $300m as she arrived in Manila. "We have deployed specialist teams, vital logistics support and dispatched critical supplies but we have to do more and faster," she said.

The US, Britain, Japan, Australia and other nations have pledged tens of millions of dollars in immediate aid, and some businesses have also offered help: banking group HSBC announced a $1m (£630,000) cash donation.

In Tacloban shops were stripped of food and water by hungry residents. While some tents had arrived, the widespread damage left many people sleeping in the ruins of their homes or under shredded trees.

Military doctors at a makeshift clinic at the airport said they had treated about 1,000 people for cuts, bruises and deep wounds but did not have enough medical supplies.

"It's overwhelming," said Antonio Tamayo, an air force captain. "We need more medicine. We can't give anti-tetanus vaccine shots because we have none."

The typhoon flattened Basey, a seaside town in Samar province about six miles across a bay from Tacloban. About 2,000 people were missing there, its governor said. Rescue and relief workers were yet to reach many of the more remote areas.

"There are hundreds of other towns and villages stretched over thousands of kilometres that were in the path of the typhoon and with which all communication has been cut," said Natasha Reyes, emergency co-ordinator in the Philippines at Médecins Sans Frontières. "No one knows what the situation is like in these more rural and remote places, and it's going to be some time before we have a full picture."

Damage to communications left the armed forces struggling to reach local authorities and many officials were dead, missing or trying to protect their own families.

"Basically the only branch of government that is working here is the military," Ruben Guinolbay, a Philippine army captain, told Reuters in Tacloban. "That is not good. We are not supposed to take over government."

The interior secretary, Manuel Roxas, said on Tuesday that only 20 of Tacloban's 293 police had arrived for work. But he added: "Today we have stabilised the situation. There are no longer reports of looting. The food supply is coming in. Up to 50,000 food packs are coming in every day, with each pack able to feed up to a family of five for three days."

A team of British medical experts and the first consignment of aid from the UK was leaving for the Philippines, David Cameron said on Tuesday.

The UK surgical team, led by Anthony Redmond, Manchester University professor of international emergency medicine, includes three emergency physicians, two orthopaedic surgeons, a plastic surgeon, two accident and emergency nurses, a theatre nurse, two anaesthetists and one specialist physiotherapist.

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier, transporting about 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft, plus four other US navy ships, should arrive in two to three days, the Pentagon said.

Britain's HMS Daring, a warship with equipment to make drinking water from seawater, and a military transport aircraft should arrive around the same time.

Japan is sending a team of 40 from its self-defence force.

Aquino has declared a state of national calamity, allowing the central government to release emergency funds more quickly and impose price controls.

Initial estimates of the cost of the damage vary widely, with a report from German-based CEDIM Forensic Disaster Analysis putting the total at anywhere from $8bn to $19bn.

Source:-
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...d-stampede-aid

[Terpe]

I've just watched on TV as the first supplies of emergency aid get unloaded at Tacloban Airport to be distributed under appropriate security.

Desperate people will make desperate efforts to survive.
We should ask ourselves what we would do.

The unfortunate side effects are that aid agencies are unable to transport supplies by road and need to rely on air transportation until security can be settled down.

Looks like the huge efforts now begin. Those US V-22 Osprey's have made all the difference.

God speed the aid process

[bigmarco]

That doesn't make good reading. It's understandable that people are going to head for the warehouses if the food is not going to be transported to them.
It seems there's no shortage of help being offered but nobody seems able to coordinate it.
Seen a US Military spokesman from their Taskforce in Tacloban being interviewed and they did seem to have a plan and were getting organised for the surrounding areas with smaller aircraft and helicopters. Hopefully the situation will now start to improve.

[grahamw48]

Why hide the location of rice stores ?

The people need food now. If extra is taken it will filter down anyway. No good stacked up in some warehouse.

As for 'looting' food etc (NOT TVs) from damaged shops...what good is it left to rot ?

The people need supplies immediately, even if they belong to someone else. Insurance and compensation can be sorted out later. It's not like it's a riot situation. It's life or death.

[stevewool]

Desperate people will make desperate efforts to survive.
We should ask ourselves what we would do.

thats the question we all should ask ourselves, most would roll over and die to tell the truth, others would just wait with their hands out,

[lordna]

My wife , with the help of one of her friends and Facebook, managed to get in contact with her mother in Tacloban on Monday. They had no water or food and there with my wifes brother and 3 very young children all fortunately survived. We have heard from them today that they have now joined other family members in Abuyog which we understand wasn't as badly hit. So far we have no news of my wifes sister in Dulag which we are told was completly washed away....she lived there with her husband and 2 young children. Still hoping for good news.
Hopefully moving all the family together to Abuyog will be a good move as the situation in Tacloban was apparently absolutely intolerable and looked like getting worse with the NPA taking advantage of the situation (so i am told).