Typhoon Haiyan

[Dougbert]

Are we allowed to post links to flickr?  Please delete if this is not allowed.  Pics from Leyte.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/108091796@N07/10747178895/in/photostream/

[lonewolf]

Hey guys,

 

Most of us have at the very least, basic first aid training, sound judgement and careful planning.  I am posing these 

questions, not to be unsympathetic with you guys going through moments of terror right now but it's really a question

to myself.  My question is.....do I have the will to survive?  Will I sacrifice my own life to save others?  

 

Even with my military background, it's a hard pill to swallow.  Perhaps in my 30's and 40's, I may still have that will to

survive anything.  However, at my age 63 taking meds for the rest of my life.....hell yeah!  I would gladly give up my

life to save the life of Judy and my children.  

 

Judy and I are praying for you guys.  Keep your head down and stock up on some cold San Magoo!

 

Sincerely -- Jake

jake from my experiance you don t needto worry , you ve had the training and and the will or you wouldn t last in the military . and most of the time you ll just what you thought was right, and after look back and think did i really do that and then you get the shakes. i just heard from ana awhile ago it was short because her phon was on low bat, said her and family were fine. and i m thankful

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Glad that is over....

We lost phone signal at 1000 8 NOV and it came back sporadically last night, fairly steady all day today,  also lost power about 1400 on 8NOV, just came back on at 1600 9NOV!   All our food thawed out but nothing spoiled.  No damage to the house - even the worn out nipa stayed in place.   We had one uprooted banana tree and tons of limbs come down.  But I was really surprised by the lack of rain.  It was eerily quiet then the wind would howl in.  After the storm passed we got horrid rain all night from some rain drug behind the typhoon.  Down here in Iloilo we did ok.  My biggest problem was having no fan... right before the power came back I had finally stopped sweating... not usually a good sign... and was quite dizzy.  Got me a good cold shower and feel better, still a bit nauseous... but such is life.  Overall we did fine!

 

Our family in Barbaza, Antique (near Tibiao) we were worried about.  But we just got word from them finally that they are all ok.  but they still have no power or phone signals.  Father-in-law, in Antique, drove down there and checked on both towns.  There electricity comes from Kalibo so they should be messed up for a while.

 

I am just now starting to go look at news sites for damage reports.  We heard about Leyte before we lost power (but not how bad it was).  I have some folks to check on in Boracay....

[Medic Mike]

More than 100 killed by Super Typhoon Haiyan Typhoon was 3 times stronger than Hurricane Katrina

 

 

TACLOBAN, Philippines (CNN) —Officials rushed body bags to devastated communities Saturday after Super Typhoon Haiyan left more than 100 corpses strewn on the streets of one coastal city.

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The bodies in Tacloban city were the first significant casualty report.

A military spokesman said after soldiers arrived at the city, they asked for more bags.

"There are numbers of undetermined casualties found along the roads. We have to send the requested 100 body bags in the area," Lt. Jim Aris Alagao told the Philippines news agency.

Bodies bobbed around waterfronts.

Shell-shocked Filipinos waded through waist-high water in the streets. Flipped-over vehicles, fallen utility poles and trees snapped in half landed on roads, blocking transportation.

"Tacloban has been the worst hit and we expect the greatest number of casualties from there," Alagao said. "We have not been able to determine a specific death toll as communications are still down -- other government agencies are reporting more than 100 casualties in Tacloban alone."

Officials say the number of casualties is expected to go up once they get access to devastated areas.

In Tacloban, mobile services were down and officials were relying on radios for communication, which was intermittent, Alagao said.

Relief services were handing out ready-to-eat meals, clothing, blankets, medicine and water, he added.

It'll take days to get the full scope of the damage by a typhoon described as one of the strongest storms to make landfall in recorded history.

In addition to the fatalities, at least 100 people were injured in Tacloban, said Capt. John Andrews, deputy director of the national Civil Aviation Authority.

Tacloban has a population of about 220,000 people.

 

Catastrophic destruction

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 barreled onto the country's eastern island of Samar on Friday morning, flooding streets and knocking out power and communications in most of Eastern Visayas region.

It first landed near Dulag and Tacloban, flooding coastal communities with a surge of water and delivering 195 mph winds with gusts reaching as high as 235 mph.

Many islands hit

It continued its march, barreling into five other Philippine islands.

Haiyan weakened Saturday and was no longer a super typhoon, downgrading to a typhoon with sustained winds of 130 mph.

But it could return to super typhoon status Saturday. It's headed toward Vietnam and could land Sunday morning near the cities of Da Nang and Hue.

Philippine military helicopters are taking aerial surveys and relief agencies in Manila are traveling as long as 18 hours to reach the worst-hit isles.

Cut-off communities

Tacloban is the largest city in the Eastern Visayas Islands. It was an important logistical base during World War II, and served as a temporary capital of the Philippines. But Saturday, it was among the most devastated and authorities and relief agencies had no immediate information about its condition.

Super Typhoon Haiyan packed a wallop on Philippine structures 3.5 times more forceful than the United States' Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which directly or indirectly killed 1,833 people. At $108 billion, it was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

Most of Cebu province couldn't be contacted by landlines, cell phones or radio Saturday, said Dennis Chiong, operations officer for the province's disaster risk and emergency management.

One inaccessible town, Daanbantayan, has more than 3,000 residents who "badly need food, water and shelter because most of the houses there are damaged due to the storm," Chiong said.

In the town of Santa Fe in Cebu province, officials could not determine the number of fatalities because roads were washed out and phone services down.

Defenseless against the storm's might

One major concern was the typhoon's impact on the Bohol Island, where 350,000 people have been living in tents and temporary shelters since last month's earthquake, said Joe Curry of Catholic Relief Services.

"This one was incredibly intense and big," Curry said. "The strength of this typhoon is phenomenal and the way it moved across the Philippines is something of serious concern."

He feared that islands will experience the most fatalities.

"There are a lot of rural areas, a lot of small islands that are affected. We don't know how they can protect themselves from a typhoon of this strength," Curry said.

Clarson Fruelda, of Cebu City, said residents were cleaning up dirt, leaves, coconuts, and tree branches from their homes.

"The winds were the strongest that I felt in more than 20 years," Fruelda said. "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."

Higher tolls

Experts predicted the casualty toll would soar once aid workers get to the hardest-hit areas, many of which were totally isolated with no phone service and no electricity.

About 125,000 people took refuge in evacuation centers, and hundreds of flights were canceled.

With sustained winds of 195 mph (315 kph) and gusts as strong as 235 mph (380 kph), Haiyan may be the strongest tropical cyclone in recorded history. It will take further analysis after the storm passes to establish whether it is a record.

Haiyan was on a westward track when it raced into Samar traveling at 25 mph (41 kph), which meant the worst was over quickly.

'The strongest I ever felt'

Maryann Zamora, a field communications specialist for the charity World Vision, said her organization "has been working through so many disasters, so many typhoons -- but this is quite different."

"This is the strongest I ever felt so far," she said by phone from the island of Cebu.

Read more: http://www.koco.com/news/national/more-than-100-killed-by-haiyan-largest-storm-in-history/-/9844074/22886628/-/pocxpsz/-/index.html#ixzz2k8fwGBqK

 

Edited November 9, 2013 by Medic Mike

[Medic Mike]

One of biting storms ever victimizes Philippines

 

09 November 2013 [10:40] - TODAY.AZ

 

 

One of the strongest typhoons ever to hit land has slammed the Philippines, forcing millions to take shelter, BBC reported.

Packing sustained winds of up to 320 km/h (199mph), Typhoon Haiyan left at least four people dead, but it may be days before the full damage is known.

The storm ripped apart buildings and triggered landslides as it ploughed across the country's central islands.

Officials said more than 12 million people were at risk, but the storm's rapid passing could limit its impact.

"We expect the level of destruction caused by Typhoon Haiyan to be extensive and devastating, and sadly we fear that many lives will be lost," said Save the Children's Philippines director Anna Lindenfors.

Eduardo del Rosario, head of the disaster response agency, told the Associated Press that early evacuations and the speed at which the typhoon swept across the Philippines, may have helped reduce its destructive potential.

Lt Gen Roy Deveraturda, a military commander, echoed this view, telling the AP: "It has helped that the typhoon blew very fast in terms of preventing lots of casualties."

Meteorologists had earlier warned that the storm could be as devastating as Typhoon Bopha in 2012, which ravaged parts of the southern Philippines and left at least 1,000 people dead.

Haiyan - equivalent to a category five hurricane - is now heading towards Vietnam and southern China.

The storm made landfall on the Philippines shortly before dawn, bringing gusts that reached 379 km/h (235 mph), waves as high as 15m (45ft) and up to 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain in places.

There were reports of buildings being ripped apart, flash floods and landslides. Schools and offices were closed, while ferry services and local flights were suspended. Hospitals and soldiers were on stand-by for rescue and relief operations.

Power and communication lines were also cut to some areas.

Haiyan raged across Leyte and Samar, turning roads into rivers, and battered Cebu city, the country's second largest with a population of 2.5 million.

The eye of the storm - known locally as Yolanda - passed well to the south of the capital Manila, but the city still felt its force.

"The wind here is whistling. It's so strong and the heavy downpours are continuing," Mai Zamora, from the charity World Vision, in Cebu, told the BBC.

"We've been hearing from my colleagues in [the city of] Tacloban that they've seen galvanised iron sheets flying just like kites."

"It was frightening. The wind was so strong, it was so loud, like a screaming woman. I could see trees being toppled down," Liwayway Sabuco, a saleswoman from Catbalogan, a major city on Samar, told AFP news agency.

Former BBC Manila correspondent Kate McGeown says that while reports are now coming in from some of the affected cities, there was still very little information from the countryside in large areas of the Visayas region such as Negros and Iloilo, and the island of Mindoro.

There were reports of substantial damage even in areas that missed the worst of Haiyan, the 25th tropical storm to enter Philippine territory this year.

"The storm was very strong - although Surigao City was not directly hit we experienced its fury early this morning," said Protestant pastor Diosdado Casera in Surigao City in north-east Mindanao.

"The big buildings made of concrete were fine, but the houses made of wood and shingles and plywood have suffered a lot of damage, mainly to their roof."

A spokesperson for the British Red Cross, Nichola Jones, who is in Tagbilaran on the central island of Bohol, said the typhoon had cut power and torn off roof tiles, but was "not too bad".

"But I think to the north - that's the area that has borne the brunt. Those were the areas worst hit by the earthquake last month."

"In Cebu they have had quite a battering and I spoke to our colleagues and they've had quite strong winds and are locked down in their hotels. They are waiting to see what the situation is."

Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private firm Weather Underground, said in a blog post that the damage from Haiyan's winds must have been "perhaps the greatest wind damage any city on Earth has endured from a tropical cyclone in the past century".

Our correspondent says that, while the country is better prepared than for previous storms, it is not clear whether even buildings being used as storm shelters can withstand these winds.

In its path are areas already struggling to recover from a deadly 7.3-magnitude earthquake last month, including the worst-hit island of Bohol where about 5,000 people are still living in tents.

 

Edited November 9, 2013 by Medic Mike

[Jollygoodfellow]

 

Hello Expats, Everyone here in the States is frantically trying to find out if relatives are okay. If you have internet access, The various regions should sound off, they are okay. Families are posting to Facebook, trying to get news. I am very interested in the region of Calbayog City, Samar. If anyone lives close to that area, please post how the conditions and affects are... Thank you so much... Jimmy

 

Bruce had contact with his associates in Samar up until the worst hit and power went off. I will contact him today to see if he has any other news.

 

 

 

Just an update

I have not had a reply from Bruce and my gut feeling is he is on his way to Sarmar. He asked me to do some things for him and also to pass on the message that anyone donating money to family in the Philippines can claim a tax US tax deduction by confirming with him by Email even if not donating to his charity. I am not up with the tax side of things so please contact him directly through his site, http://www.philippinebasicneeds.com/

[Medic Mike]

 

 

Hello Expats, Everyone here in the States is frantically trying to find out if relatives are okay. If you have internet access, The various regions should sound off, they are okay. Families are posting to Facebook, trying to get news. I am very interested in the region of Calbayog City, Samar. If anyone lives close to that area, please post how the conditions and affects are... Thank you so much... Jimmy

 

Bruce had contact with his associates in Samar up until the worst hit and power went off. I will contact him today to see if he has any other news.

 

 

 

Just an update

I have not had a reply from Bruce and my gut feeling is he is on his way to Sarmar. He asked me to do some things for him and also to pass on the message that anyone donating money to family in the Philippines can claim a tax US tax deduction by confirming with him by Email even if not donating to his charity. I am not up with the tax side of things so please contact him directly through his site, http://www.philippinebasicneeds.com/

 

I have sent Bruce an email, just in case he needs some support up there. I will be back on Wednesday, and can bring a small ERUF response team if they are still having any major medical dramas up there.

[johnb]

Just as an update from here in Pardo Cebu, we have just had power returned after 30hrs, no serious damage to my or other local houses, wife, dogs, cats, budgerigar and me all doing fine lol

[Medic Mike]

Just as an update from here in Pardo Cebu, we have just had power returned after 30hrs, no serious damage to my or other local houses, wife, dogs, cats, budgerigar and me all doing fine lol

Good to hear!!

[Jollygoodfellow]

I have sent Bruce an email, just in case he needs some support up there. I will be back on Wednesday, and can bring a small ERUF response team if they are still having any major medical dramas up there.

 

Thanks Mike

I could imagine that any help at all would be welcomed in Samar, even before the typhoon.