Typhoon Haiyan

November 10, 2013

Richard Gordon, PH Red Cross: Relief goods mobbed in Tanauan, Leyte could have fed 25,000 families.

http://anc.yahoo.com/video/gordon-red-cross-convoy-carrying-072607250.html

November 11, 2013

had great news my friend is alive !! just got a message from her they lost everything there house her classroom ( shes a teacher ) but there all ok i said to her material things can be replaced but your lives cant be thank god for this !!!!

November 11, 2013

Hi, I am a journalist with the Press Association in London. I'm hoping to speak with the British expat community about the effects the typhoon has had on them, their family and their community.

I have noticed a few British expats on this site, but am unable to contact them. If you are willing to have a chat, could you please email me at nathan.paull@pressassociation.com, preferably with a contact number if you are able to take calls.

Thank you for your time and I hope you and yours fared ok in the storm.

Regards,

Nathan Paull

November 11, 2013

Typhoon survivors' grim struggle amid corpses Officials say as many as 10,000 people may have been killed

Read more: http://www.wgal.com/news/national/Typhoon-survivors-grim-struggle-amid-corpses/-/9360498/22906702/-/8mllimz/-/index.html#ixzz2kKYxTioA

TACLOBAN, Philippines (CNN) —Survivors root through the splintered wreckage of their homes searching for loved ones who may be buried beneath. Others are scrambling to find food and water in areas littered with corpses.

Three days after Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in recorded history, scythed across the central Philippines, people here are struggling to grasp the enormity of what they have lost and the challenges they still face.

The storm, known as Yolanda in the Philippines, has left devastation on a monumental scale in its wake.

Thousands of houses have been obliterated. Many areas are still cut off from transport, communications and power. Some officials say that as many as 10,000 people may have been killed.

"There are too many people dead," said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross. "We have bodies in the water, bodies on the bridges, bodies on the side of the road."

And amid the carnage, hundreds of thousands of survivors are trying to cope with a lack of water, food, shelter and medicine. Aid workers and government officials are battling to get emergency supplies to hard hit areas, which have been cut off by fallen trees and power lines.

'Worse than hell'

In Tacloban, a city of more than 200,000 inhabitants that suffered a catastrophic blow from the typhoon, dead bodies still lay by the side of the road Monday.

Some had been covered by sheets or tarpaulins. But others still lay as they had fallen, a look of horror frozen on their faces.

Aid workers are worried that the grim abundance of corpses will create health risks for desperate survivors, who are drinking water from underground wells without knowing if it's been contaminated.

Magina Fernandez, one of many survivors who were trying to get out of Tacloban at the city's crippled airport at the weekend, described the situation there as "worse than hell."

"Get international help to come here now -- not tomorrow, now," she said, directing some of her anger at Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, who on Sunday toured some of the hardest-hit areas.

Tacloban was shattered by Haiyan, whose tremendous force brought a wall of water roaring off the Gulf of Leyte. The storm surge leveled entire neighborhoods of wooden houses and flung large ships ashore like toys.

"I have not spoken to anyone who has not lost someone, a relative close to them," said the city's mayor, Alfred Romualdez, who narrowly escaped death during the storm's fury. "We are looking for as many as we can."

Many areas hit

But Tacloban is far from the only devastated area. Authorities are still trying to establish the level of destruction elsewhere along Haiyan's path.

"It's not just Tacloban, it's all the coastal areas" in that region, Gordon said.

Fishing communities stretch for miles down the island eastern coast of the island of Leyte, the place where Gen. Douglas Macarthur led U.S. troops ashore in 1944 at the start of the long, bloody fight to retake the Philippines from the Japanese during World War II.

The other settlements along the coast are likely to have suffered a similar fate to Tacloban.

Across the Gulf of Leyte lies Samar, the island where Haiyan made its first of six deadly landfalls in the Philippines on Friday. Government and aid officials say they are still trying to reach many affected communities on Samar.

A similar challenge of damage assessment exists farther west, on the islands of Cebu and Panay, which also suffered direct hits from the typhoon.

The official death toll from the storm stands at 255, according to national authorities. But with so much about the storm's impact still unknown, a full accounting its victims will take time.

"We can give you estimates right now, but none of it will be accurate." Gordon said.

Authorities are funneling aid on military planes to Tacloban's airport, which also resumed very limited commercial flights on Monday.

But with the airport 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the city center and many roads still clogged with debris, getting the supplies to the places where they're most needed is proving difficult.

Roads blocked, airports destroyed

The problems are the same in other stricken regions.

"The main challenges right now are related to logistics," said Praveen Agrawal of the U.N.'s World Food Program, who returned to Manila from the affected areas on Sunday. "Roads are blocked, airports are destroyed."

The need for food and water has led to increasingly desperate efforts. In their frantic search, people have broken into grocery and department stores in Tacloban.

Richard Young, a local businessman, said he and others had formed a group to protect their businesses.

"We have our firearms, we will shoot within our property," he said.

Authorities have sent police and military reinforcements to try to bring the situation under control.

Another dire scene played out in the city's only functioning hospital over the weekend. Doctors couldn't admit any more wounded victims because there wasn't enough room. Some of the injured lay in the hospital's cramped hallways seeking treatment.

"We haven't anything left to help people with," one of the doctors said. "We have to get supplies in immediately."

Complicating the search efforts is the lack of electricity in many parts of the storm's path.

The northern part of Bogo, in the central Philippines, suffered a blackout Sunday, and authorities said it will take months to restore power.

Storm moves onto Vietnam

With its gusts of more than 250 kph (155 mph), Haiyan may have been the strongest tropical cyclone in recorded history, but meteorologists said it will take further analysis to confirm whether it set a record.

After leaving the Philippines on Friday, the storm lost power as it moved across the South China Sea over the weekend.

Early Monday, it hit the coast of northern Vietnam, where authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people from vulnerable areas. It weakened to become a tropical storm as it moved inland.

Aid workers said Vietnam was likely to avoid damage on the scale suffered by the Philippines. But officials have warned that the heavy rain brought by Haiyan could cause flooding and landslides in northern Vietnam and southern China.

For the devastated areas of the Philippines, the bad weather may not be over. The national weather agency, Pagasa, said Monday that a tropical depression was moving toward the southern part of the country.

Far weaker than Haiyan, the weather system is likely to mainly affect the islands of Mindanao and Bohol, which didn't suffer direct hits on Friday. But it could bring wind and heavy rain to Tacloban and the surrounding area, making conditions even more hazardous.

Aid workers say that the recovery from Haiyan will take many months.

"This disaster on such a scale will probably have us working for the next year," said Sandra Bulling, international communications officer for the aid agency CARE. "Fishermen have lost their boats. Crops are devastated. This is really the basic income of many people."

Read more: http://www.wgal.com/news/national/Typhoon-survivors-grim-struggle-amid-corpses/-/9360498/22906702/-/8mllimz/-/index.html#ixzz2kKZD4fKz

Edited November 11, 2013 by Medic Mike

November 11, 2013

Typhoon survivors struggle for life

516733_web_APTOPIX-Philippines-T_Jens.jp

Residents cover their nose from the smell of dead bodies in Tacloban city in the Philippines on Sunday. The city remains littered with debris from damaged homes as many complain of shortage of food, water and no electricity since Typhoon Haiyan slammed into their province. (Bullit Marquez/The Associated Press)

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By JIM GOMEZ

The Associated Press

TACLOBAN, Philippines — Rescuers faced blocked roads and damaged airports today as they raced to deliver desperately needed tents, food and medicines to the typhoon-devastated eastern Philippines where thousands are believed dead.

Three days after the Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the region, the full scale of the disaster — the biggest faced by the Philippines — was only now becoming apparent. International aid groups and the U.S military were mobilizing a major international relief mission for a large swath of the country’s already poor eastern seaboard.

The winds and the sea waves whipped up were so strong that they washed hulking ships inland, which now stood incongruously amid debris of buildings, trees, road signs and people’s belongings.

Authorities estimated that up to 10,000 people may have died. But the government has been unable to give official death toll yet. Still, officials said after surveying the areas there is little doubt that the death toll will be that high, or even higher.

“In some cases the devastation has been total,” said Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras.

In Manila’s Vilamor air force base, a contingent of U.S. Marines was preparing to fly in relief supplies in two C-130 transport planes to Tacloban, a city in Leyte province that was badly hit by the storm. From the air, the city resembled a garbage dump punctuated by a few concrete buildings that remained standing. Corpses hung from trees and were scattered on sidewalks. Many were buried in flattened buildings.

Survivors wandered through the remains of their flattened wooden homes looking to salvage belongings or to search for loved ones.

Very little assistance had reached the city, residents reported. Some took food, water and consumer goods from abandoned shops, malls and homes.

“This area has been totally ravaged,” said Sebastien Sujobert, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tacloban. “Many lives were lost, a huge number of people are missing, and basic services such as drinking water and electricity have been cut off,” he said.

Haiyan hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippines on Friday and quickly barreled across its central islands, packing winds of 147 mph that gusted to 170 mph, and a storm surge of 20 feet

Even though authorities had evacuated some 800,000 people ahead of the typhoon, the death toll was so high because many evacuation centers — brick-and-mortar schools, churches and government buildings — could not withstand the winds and water surges. Officials said people who had huddled in these buildings drowned or were swept away.

It inflicted serious damage to at least six islands in the middle of the eastern seaboard, with Leyte, Samar and the northern part of Cebu appearing to bear the brunt of the storm. About 4 million people were affected by the storm, the national disaster agency said.

Video from Eastern Samar province’s Guiuan township — the first area where the typhoon made landfall — also showed a trail of devastation similar to Tacloban. Many houses were flattened and roads were strewn with debris and uprooted trees. The ABS-CBN video showed several bodies on the street, covered with blankets.

“I have no house, I have no clothes. I don’t know how I will restart my life, I am so confused,” an unidentified woman said, crying. “I don’t know what happened to us. We are appealing for help. Whoever has a good heart, I appeal to you — please help Guiuan.”

The United Nations said it was sending supplies but access to the worst hit areas was a challenge.

“Reaching the worst affected areas is very difficult, with limited access due to the damage caused by the typhoon to infrastructure and communications,” said UNICEF Philippines Representative Tomoo Hozumi.

Reports were trickling in, indicating deaths elsewhere besides Leyte Island.

On Samar Island, Leo Dacaynos of the provincial disaster office said 300 people were confirmed dead in one town and another 2,000 were missing, with some towns yet to be reached by rescuers.

With communications still knocked out in many areas, it was unclear how authorities were arriving at their estimates of the number of people killed, and it will be days before the full extent of the storm is known.

President Benigno Aquino III said he was considering declaring a state of emergency or martial law in Tacloban. A state of emergency usually includes curfews, price and food supply controls, military or police checkpoints and increased security patrols.

Challenged to respond to a disaster of such magnitude, the Philippine government also accepted help from abroad.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel directed the Pacific Command to deploy ships and aircraft to support search-and-rescue operations and fly in emergency supplies.

Pope Francis led tens of thousands of people at the Vatican in prayer for the victims. The Philippines has the largest number of Catholics in Asia, and Filipinos are one of Rome’s biggest immigrant communities.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Medic Mike

November 11, 2013

Hello everyone! 1st order of business of course is to thank Our Lord for sparing our house and our city. Nothing short of His miracle. By all normal means, this house and the others in my neighborhood should have been leveled to the ground.We ended up losing only 3 things. Power, landline / internet, & my cage which I keep my car in. Thank you to my sister in FL for sending emergency funds to help us with food & fuel. The power got restored and cooking gas replaced yesterday, Landline & internet about 2 hours ago. Roof has some leaks but still trying to determine how much.
Thank you everyone for the prayers and especially one of my friends in MA for the expense of actually calling international to my cell to check on us. Thanks again Lord for sparing my home and my family. God Bless.....Steve & Myrlita.

November 11, 2013

Philippine typhoon death toll climbs to 1,774

A man searches among the debris of his destroyed house near Tacloban Airport, on the eastern island of Leyte, in the Philippines, on Nov. 10, 2013. (Xinhua/Rueters)

Click here for more pictures >>>

MANILA, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The number of deaths caused by super typhoon "Haiyan" (local name Yolanda) rose to 1,774 by Monday night, a Philippine government agency said.

Of the total fatalities, 1,660 were found in worst-hit eastern Visayas region, said National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) spokesman Rey Balido said.

He said 82 were still missing and 2,487 were injured.

Balido said they expected the number of casualties to increase as they were awaiting reports from other areas.

The super typhoon hit the Philippines on Friday.

Related:

1.7 mln Philippine children may be affected by super typhoon: UN

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said here Saturday that up to 1.7 million Philippine children could be affected by super typhoon Haiyan, which tore through the country over the last 48 hours. Full story

Haiyan's power-packed winds, storm surges kill thousands in Philippines

MANILA, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Residents of island-provinces of Bohol and Cebu in central Philippines could not have imagined that they would be hit by two major calamities in less than a month.Full Story

10,000 people in C. Philippines feared dead in typhoon "Haiyan"

MANILA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 10,000 people in central Philippine province of Leyte might be killed by super typhoon "Haiyan", local media reported Sunday. Full story

Edited November 11, 2013 by Medic Mike

November 11, 2013

Tourist destinations not affected by typhoon Haiyan

The beach at Boracay, one of the Philippines' premier tourist attractions.

Australians are being urged to continue with their plans to holiday in the Philippines, despite the typhoon and earthquake which have hit the region.

Typhoon Haiyan came nearly a month after an earthquake registering 7.2 struck the region.

On Monday, the Australian government advised visitors to ''exercise a high degree of caution'' when visiting the Philippines.

Consuelo Jones, from the Philippine Department of Tourism (Australia/New Zealand), urged Australians to support her country in its time of need.

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''I strongly feel that any Australian with plans of going to the Philippines should go,'' she said.

''Tourists can help our economy and still enjoy their holiday. None of the major tourist destinations were affected by the typhoon. It only crossed the northern part of Cebu. All flights have been restored throughout the country, except to Leyte.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/tourist-destinations-not-affected-by-typhoon-haiyan-20131111-2xcgu.html#ixzz2kLUa0RvG

Edited November 11, 2013 by Medic Mike

November 11, 2013

U.S. Marines Helping Philippines Deal With Typhoon Disaster

November 11, 2013 - 4:34 AM

By Patrick Goodenough

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U.S. Marines board a KC-130J Hercules aircraft Nov. 10 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, Japan, before departing for a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission to the Philippines. (Photo: Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. David N. Hersey)

(CNSNews.com) – A team of U.S. Marines has arrived in the Philippines to join search and rescue and humanitarian aid efforts in the aftermath of the typhoon that devastated parts of the archipelago before heading for Vietnam where it made landfall, slightly weakened, on Monday.

The Marines will use MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which have vertical takeoff and landing and short takeoff and landing capabilities. The airport in Tacloban, the capital of Leyte island where some Philippine officials estimate as many as 10,000 people may be dead, is not yet able to accommodate large planes.

A U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific spokesman said the MV-22 “can operate in austere environments. Its ability to convert quickly to fixed-wing configuration gives it greatly increased speed and range over traditional rotary wing aircraft.”

The team from the Okinawa-based 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade will focus on the search for survivors and logistic support for the unfolding humanitarian mission.

Two U.S. Navy P-3 Orion aircraft, currently on a six-month rotation in Japan in support of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, will also be used to help the Philippines Armed Forces’ search and rescue operations.

The Pentagon said earlier that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had instructed U.S. Pacific Command to deploy ships and aircraft to the Philippines, with an initial focus including airborne and maritime search and rescue, and helicopter and fixed-wing lift support.

The U.S. Agency for International Development announced an immediate initial grant of $100,000 for health care, clean water and sanitation for hard-hit areas, as well as emergency food and shelter materials.

A USAID response team visiting Leyte to assess damage and determine humanitarian needs reported that in some areas 90 percent of the housing has been destroyed or significantly damaged.

People remove fallen trees from a road in Daanbantayan town, north Cebu, central Philippines, after typhoon Haiyan hit the region, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Chester Baldicantos)

Other countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Britain and the European Union are also sending aid to supplement efforts of the Philippine military and civilian agencies, as are U.N. and private humanitarian agencies, including the World Food Program, American Red Cross and World Vision. Food, clean water and medical supplies are likely to be the most needed items in the coming days.

The International Rescue Committee dispatched an emergency team to Manila and launched a $10 million appeal in order to implement the most appropriate response in consultation with the Philippine government.

The U.N. humanitarian aid coordination office originally cited government estimates that 4.3 million people across 36 provinces had been affected by the disaster, with a proviso that a more detailed picture would emerge as more areas were reached. A subsequent government assessment raised the figure of affected people to 9.5 million in 41 provinces.

The government has yet to issue an official death toll – its website still reads 229 dead, 28 missing – but the Philippine Red Cross reported at least 1,200 deaths, with that number expected to rise significantly. The 10,000 figure came from the Leyte police chief, citing the provincial governor.

Although the full scale of loss of life and damage caused by the powerful winds and a 20-foot storm surge remains unclear, Typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as Yolanda) may turn out to be the deadliest natural disaster on record for a country scattered across more than 7,000 islands and vulnerable to typhoons as well as earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

Because of its susceptibility to natural calamities, the Philippines is better prepared than some countries in the region, with disaster awareness programs, early-warning systems and frequent drills. But the scale of some disasters easily overwhelm the preparations.

Previously, the deadliest tropical storm was one in 1991 that caused around 6,000 deaths, while a 1976 tsunami triggered by an earthquake killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people.

According to the Marine Corps Forces Pacific, the U.S. government has responded to more than 40 natural disasters in the Philippines since 1990.

‘Resiliency’

The Philippines is the oldest of America’s five treaty allies in Asia (the others are Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Australia) and has been seeking closer military-to-military relations in recent years, in part related to concerns about Chinese sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.

President Obama was scheduled to visit while on a regional tour last month that was canceled due to the government shutdown. It would have been the first presidential visit since 2003, when President Bush became the first American leader in more than 40 years to address a joint session of the Philippine Congress.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who stood in for Obama at regional summits in Indonesia and Brunei, was due to visit Manila on October 11-12 in the president’s stead, but at the last minute that visit was canceled too, due to an approaching tropical storm. At the time he promised to reschedule quickly, “within a month or so.”

“Having so recently had my own visit to the Philippines prevented by another powerful storm, I know that these horrific acts of nature are a burden that you have wrestled with and courageously surmounted before. Your spirit is strong,” Kerry said in a weekend statement addressed to the Philippine people.

Obama in a condolence statement also spoke of “the incredible resiliency of the Philippine people.”

“The United States is already providing significant humanitarian assistance, and we stand ready to further assist the government’s relief and recovery efforts,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the millions of people affected by this devastating storm.”

Typhoon Haiyan, now downgraded to a severe tropical storm, hit northern Vietnam on Monday. The government earlier evacuated some 600,000 people in areas thought to be at risk, and a national television channel said six people had died in central Vietnam as a result of flooding and heavy rains caused by the storm.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Medic Mike

November 12, 2013

Just chatted with my friend online for a few mins and you can tell the desperation starting to set in ! and the sadness shes feeling i said can i call you ? no batt in cell no electricity there in ormoc and also said food shortages coz priority is Tacloban how can i really help her being so far away ? im going to western union a little $ on friday if there even open i dont know ?? tried to make her smile the best i could but i know shes pretty traumatized by loosing everything she even said her mother and father cried at loosing there coconut farm they lost everything how can somebody comfort a person or family that lost so much !!! its unreal to think about !!!! one minute everythings fine the next its all over !!! i really feel sorry for them ! all i can do is try and be there for her as best i can !! told her to try and keep her cell charged so i can call her this friday with the info to get the $ its only a little bit but im sure it will help SO SAD SITUATION for them :(

O-U-C :(

Typhoon Haiyan

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