Typhoon Haiyan

[Thomas]

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 :(

Yes, very sad and very hard to assist in the short run.

Some small advice in the short run:

Living rural they have some LESS food problem than them living in a city, because there are many eatable things growing even wild. I mean OTHER than the commonly known berries and such. E g eatable are ginger growing wild, some seaweed, bamboo sprouts... Bamboo sprouts I eat myself now and then instead of meat.

You can ask her to check BEFORE you send which money service - if any - functions there.

HOPE is very important. You can tell her what you can assist with for FUTURE.

 

For future:

You can give her a small suncell charger to avoid geting the communication problem again because of electric. Such cost litle according to an other topic.

I guess their coconut farm give only litle profit. In Samar it's so bad so some don't bother to harvest, not worth if need to hire someone to do it.  When rebuild DWARFpalms are much better/less bad, But in any case it will take years until palmtrees will give fruit.

It's a problem in the bad soils - and often SALTY :(  -  palmtrees often are at, but perhaps they can find something to grow BETWEEN the palm trees. e g IF the ground can suit to grow rice at, a new rice type is invented rather recently, which can manage a some salty water/ground.

[Jollygoodfellow]

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 :(

 

 

It is indeed a sad situation.

Western union may not help at the moment as there may be no where to collect funds as well as no electricity to transfer funds etc. The only thing I can say which wont help is life goes on, somehow they will survive and one day this is all another bad memory. 

[Jollygoodfellow]

 

TACLOBAN, PHILIPPINES—As many as 10,000 people are believed dead in one Philippine city

I still wonder how come so many DROWNED by not being evacuated.

1. Officials not organicing it?

2. Or many people didn't follow, when they were told to evacuate?

 

 

 

What happened Thomas is that many drowned in the evacuation centers. No one foreseen the storm surge as being so big.

 

 

But Philippine officials had not anticipated the 6-meter (20-feet) storm surges that swept through Tacloban, capital of the island province of Leyte, which saw the worst of Haiyan’s damage. And while many perished in shelters, others ignored the evacuation and stayed put in their homes, either out of fear their property would fall prey to looters or because they underestimated the risk.

 

“I was talking to the people of Tacloban,” said senior presidential aide Rene Alemendras. “They said ‘we were ready for the wind. We were not ready for the water.’

 

“We tried our very best to warn everybody,” he said. “But it was really just overwhelming, especially the storm surge.”

 

While the storm surge proved deadly, much of the initial destruction was caused by winds blasting at 235 kilometers per hour (147 mph) that occasionally blew with speeds of up to 275 kph (170 mph), howling like jet engines.

 

More http://www.toledoblade.com/World/2013/11/11/Philippines-relief-efforts-no-match-for-storm-s-fury.html

 

 

Also as you say, many did not evacuate but no one will ever know what the best thing to do at the time.

[Thomas]

What happened Thomas is that many drowned in the evacuation centers. No one foreseen the storm surge as being so big. Quote But Philippine officials had not anticipated the 6-meter (20-feet) storm surges that swept through Tacloban

Oh they didn't have the evacuation centres high enough!  If it would be a tsunami, waves can be much higher than 6 meters...

[Jollygoodfellow]

 

What happened Thomas is that many drowned in the evacuation centers. No one foreseen the storm surge as being so big. Quote But Philippine officials had not anticipated the 6-meter (20-feet) storm surges that swept through Tacloban

Oh they didn't have the evacuation centres high enough!  If it would be a tsunami, waves can be much higher than 6 meters...

 

 

Well they used existing buildings such as schools and halls. This sort of disaster does not happen every day so places like Samar which is the poorest of the poor are not going to have state of the art facilities waiting to be used. People can only do as much as they can and with what they have.

[Thomas]

Well they used existing buildings such as schools and halls. This sort of disaster does not happen every day so places like Samar which is the poorest of the poor are not going to have state of the art facilities waiting to be used. People can only do as much as they can and with what they have.

OK. Tacloban have mountains close and even within the city, so I thought they had some schools and such in high ground too.

[Old55]

Family living along Sogod Bay Southern Leyte said today that food is become difficult to find even though there is little damage. Gas Diesel and rice are rationed and they expect things to get worse.

We noticed there are few gardens or fields growing food other than rice in Southern Leyte. My wife said most fresh food is from Cebu.

[Thomas]

Family living along Sogod Bay Southern Leyte said today that food is become difficult to find even though there is little damage. Gas Diesel and rice are rationed and they expect things to get worse.

We noticed there are few gardens or fields growing food other than rice in Southern Leyte. My wife said most fresh food is from Cebu.

It's possible to survive a bit over a month without no food at all.

Much worse if flood have made so they don't have clean drinking water, because a person can only survive without water 3 days and if they drink infected water, then many get dysenteria and such. Sometimes more people die by that than by the natur catastroph itself...

 

Tips if needed:  If wells are to unclean and if rain can't be collected clean enough, water can be cleaned by first filter it to get rid of particles,

then put it in e g Pet bottles with no cover, so sun can reach it. Put on a metal roof UV beems kill the bacterias in 6-8 hours or so, more if it isn't clear weather.

[Jollygoodfellow]

I wonder if this ship will remain an garden ornament? 

 

 

Says it all

 

[Call me bubba]

No it will not remain an garden ornament. 

 very shortly the 'metal scavengers" will come to take it away. piece by piece

 

or it would be turned into a new bed space. guaranteed "flood free"