November 10, 2013

PHILIPPINE TYPHOON DEATH TOLL FEARED IN THOUSANDS



N.Y. TIMES

Philippine officials struggled to respond Sunday to the vast trail of devastation left by Typhoon Haiyan, which unleashed its fury on a central city, likely taking thousands of lives, causing widespread destruction and leaving disorder and looting in its wake.

The typhoon on Friday left the city of Tacloban in ruins, as a storm surge as high as 13 feet overwhelmed its streets, with reports from the scene saying most of the houses had been damaged or completely destroyed in the city of 220,000. More than 300 bodies have already been recovered, said Tecson Lim, the city administrator, adding that the toll could reach 10,000 in Tacloban alone.

President Benigno S. Aquino III arrived Sunday in Tacloban to meet with some of the victims of the storm and to coordinate rescue and cleanup efforts. His defense secretary, Voltaire Gazmin, described a chaotic scene there.
“There is no power, no water, nothing,” Mr. Gazmin said. “People are desperate. They’re looting.”
The lack of clear information about the extent of the damage raised the possibility that other areas could have been just as badly hit as Tacloban, where rescue efforts were being concentrated.
 
 
At the request of the Philippine government, the United States defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, ordered the deployment of ships and aircraft to bring in emergency supplies and help in the search-and-rescue operations, the Defense Department said. The United States Embassy in Manila made $100,000 immediately available for health and sanitation efforts, its Twitter feed said. A United Nations disaster assessment team was already on the ground.
“The last time I saw something on this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami,” Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, the head of the United Nations team, said in a statement, referring to the 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of Indonesia and 13 other countries.
 
Photos and television footage from the affected areas showed fierce winds ripping tin roofs off homes and sending waves crashing into wooden buildings that splintered under the force. Large ships were tossed on shore, and vehicles were shown piled up on top of one another. Video footage from Tacloban showed ocean water rushing through the streets of the city, which is located about 360 miles southeast of Manila and is the capital of the province of Leyte.

UPDATE:

The death toll in the Philippines from super typhoon Haiyan rose to 10,000, a senior official said on Sunday. Monster waves tore through entire villages, destroying 70 to 80 percent of the structures in its path and displacing some 480,000 people. The national disaster agency said 4.5 million people had been “affected” by the typhoon. “People are walking like zombies,” said medical student Jenny Chu. “It’s like a movie.” Relief agencies said the country is already stretched thin after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit central Bohol province last month. The storm weakened as it headed toward Vietnam.
November 10, 2013 9:37 AM