Typhoon Hayian Aftermath Updates

[Anthea]

BBC News

Typhoon Haiyan: 'More than 120 dead' in Philippines



More than 120 people have been reported killed by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, after the massive storm passed through the country on Friday.

Aid agencies are warning that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people could have lost their homes.

The typhoon is now heading for Vietnam, and is expected to make landfall on Sunday.

Link to Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24878993

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BBC News

Philippines Typhoon Haiyan: 'Most people hid in their closets'



Residents in part of the Philippines were left to seek shelter in closets after their roofs were blown away by Typhoon Haiyan, it has been claimed.

Sandra Conception, who lives in Cebu, was told of the situation by friends in Ormoc City, which was badly hit by the storm.

She has struggled to get news of her mother, who hid in the bathroom to stay safe.

Link to Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24879952

[Anthea]

BBC News

Typhoon Haiyan: Hundreds feared dead in Philippines



Hundreds of people are feared dead in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan swept through on Friday.

Among the worst hit areas were the eastern island of Leyte and the coastal city of Tacloban, which saw buildings flattened in a storm surge.

First reports said 100 bodies had been found there but the Red Cross later estimated a figure of more than 1,000.

Reports suggest another 200 may have died in Samar province, the Red Cross said.

Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall - is now bearing down on Vietnam, where tens of thousands are being evacuated.

The BBC Weather Centre says the typhoon is expected to make landfall late on Sunday local time (between 03:00 and 09:00 GMT), although it will have decreased markedly in strength.

Storm surges

The Philippines' Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla flew to Leyte by helicopter and viewed the devastated fishing town of Palo.

He said he believed "hundreds" of people had died just in that area.

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, said it had received preliminary reports by Red Cross teams in Tacloban and Samar.

She told Reuters news agency the teams had estimated "more than 1,000 bodies floating in Tacloban".

"In Samar, about 200 deaths. Validation is ongoing," she said.

Video from Tacloban showed it engulfed by a storm surge.

One resident, Sandy Torotoro, told Associated Press he was swept away when his house was ripped from its moorings.

"When we were being swept by the water, many people were floating and raising their hands and yelling for help. But what can we do? We also needed to be helped," he said.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said after landing in Tacloban: "The devastation is, I don't have the words for it... It's really horrific. It's a great human tragedy."

The airport has been badly damaged and only military flights are able to operate, the BBC's Jon Donnison reports from Manila.

John Andrews, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Authority, said he had been told of more than 100 bodies around Tacloban airport, with at least 100 more people injured.

Airport manager Efren Nagrama said: "It was like a tsunami. We escaped through the windows and I held on to a pole for about an hour as rain, seawater and wind swept through the airport. Some of my staff survived by clinging to trees."

Local TV journalists said they had seen 20 bodies in a church in Palo, 10km (six miles) south of Tacloban.

Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, head of a UN disaster assessment co-ordination team, said there was "destruction on a massive scale" in Tacloban.

"There are cars thrown like tumbleweed and the streets are strewn with debris. The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the [2004] Indian Ocean tsunami."









Communications to some of the worst-hit areas were cut off when the storm hit and it may be days before the final death toll and the full extent of the damage is known.

Some 15,000 troops have been deployed to the disaster zones. However, rescuers are struggling to get to remote areas, hampered by debris and damaged roads.

As darkness fell on Saturday, many areas were without electricity.

Jim Pe, deputy mayor of Coron town on the island of Busuanga, said most houses and buildings there had been destroyed or damaged.

Speaking by phone, he said five people drowned in the storm surge and three others were missing.

"It was like a 747 [jet] flying just above my roof," he said.

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

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.

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

Britain's ambassador to the Philippines, Asif Ahmad, said on Saturday that a team of humanitarian experts would be sent by the UK "to assess needs and then mobilise resources".

The head of the EU's delegation to the Philippines, Guy Ledoux, had earlier told local media that the EU was also sending a humanitarian aid team.

Internet giant Google produced an interactive crisis map showing evacuation shelters, command posts and medical centres.

Vietnam evacuation

The typhoon is now heading for Vietnam. The BBC Weather Centre says sustained wind speeds at landfall are currently forecast to be in the region of 75-80 mph (120-130 km/h), with gusts up to 115 mph.


Authorities are evacuating more than 200,000 people in central Vietnam

Authorities there have begun the mass evacuation of more than 200,000 people.

State media report that schools are being closed and people living in low-lying coastal areas are being moved to typhoon shelters on higher ground. Shipping has also been ordered back to port.

Some 170,000 soldiers have been mobilised to provide emergency relief.

Two other typhoons - Wutip and Nari - have hit central Vietnam recently, causing widespread damage.

Michael Annear, Red Cross representative for Vietnam, told AFP: "Typhoon Haiyan is two or three times more powerful... We're expecting a lot of wind damage... especially for those who repaired their houses themselves after Wutip and Nari."

Link & Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24878801

[Piling]

According to the red Cross, the last estimation raised to 1200 victims.

[Anthea]

The Guardian

Typhoon Haiyan: at least 10,000 reportedly dead in Philippine province. Estimated death toll soars as path of destruction leaves many parts of Philippines inaccessible to government and aid officials

At least 10,000 people are thought to have died in the central Philippine province of Leyte after Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, lashed the area, swallowing coastal towns, a senior police official said early on Sunday morning.

About 70-80% of the buildings in the area in the path of Haiyan in Leyte province was destroyed, said chief superintendent Elmer Soria. "We had a meeting last night with the governor and the other officials. The governor said based on their estimate, 10,000 died," he said.

The super-typhoon made landfall on Samar and Leyte islands in the eastern Visayas at about 4.40am on Friday local time, with winds up to 315km/h (195mph) tearing roofs off buildings, turning roads into rivers full of debris and knocking out electricity pylons.

With many provinces left without power or telecommunications, and airports in the hardest-hit areas, such as Tacloban in Leyte province, in tatters, experts say it is impossible to know the extent of the storm's damage – or deliver badly needed aid. Roughly 12 hours after the 600km (370-mile)-wide Haiyan blew west towards Vietnam, where it is expected to make landfall early Sunday, officials and aid workers are only now beginning to piece together details on the number of dead and injured.

The Philippine Red Cross estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in Tacloban alone, where bodies have been found "piled up around the roads" and in churches – with government figures showing that more than 4 million have been directly affected. The World Food Programme has mobilised some $2m (£1.25m) in aid and aims to deliver 40 tonnes of fortified biscuits to victims within the next few days.

Satellite images show normally green patches of vegetation ripped up into brown squares of debris in Tacloban, where local TV channel GMA broadcast images of huge storm surges, flattened buildings and families traipsing through flooded streets with their possessions held high above the water.

The head of the UN Disaster Assessment Co-ordination Team, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, described "destruction on a massive scale" in the city of 220,000 and said: "The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami. There are cars thrown like tumbleweed and the streets are strewn with debris."

Al-Jazeera correspondent Jamela Alindogan was trapped in her hotel as the eye of the storm passed overhead and ripped the roof off the building. Evoking scenes of chaos as badly hurt victims wandered the streets without medicine, food or water, and doctors at the local hospital attended to the wounded in the dark without electricity or candlelight, she said: "There is no food, not even in the hotels, and there's no water. The situation is really very desperate."

Other sources told of victims trying to climb out from under rubble to find assistance, and mobs rampaging through the streets looking for food, water or medicine, and looting electrical goods and groceries from malls. "Almost all the houses were destroyed," said Major Rey Balido of the Philippines national disaster agency. "Only a few are left standing."

Relatives of those living in the typhoon's path have had no news from their loved ones and are nervously waiting until power is restored to the area. "I spoke to my mother just a few hours before the typhoon made landfall in my city, Tacloban," said taxi driver Sherwin Martinata, 32, in the capital, Manila. "She was saying she was all right but now I have no idea if my family is safe. There is no power, no phones. I can't get through at all. I'm worried, but I'm powerless."

Those living in the hardest-hit areas, such as the eastern Visayas, are among the poorest in the Philippines, say aid agencies, who warn that there will be little or no savings for many of the victims to fall back on – putting an already vulnerable population at even greater risk of future food and job insecurity.

On Bohol island – where a 7.3-magnitude earthquake toppled colonial-era churches and killed some 200 people last month – residents were successfully evacuated ahead of the storm and as a result many lives were probably saved, said Mathias Eick of the European commission's humanitarian aid department (Echo). However, because the island's main power supply comes from neighbouring Leyte, residents are still without electricity or water.

In Tacloban, where many residents live along the coast, the sheer force of the storm was just too much for the buildings to withstand, with evacuation centres such as stadiums and churches later collapsing. "The sheer magnitude and scale of the disaster sort of overpowered all the contingency measures, and we're fearing that we'll be finding more dead bodies in those evacuation centres themselves," said Alwynn Javier of Christian Aid.

Without information on the ground or access to hard-hit areas, aid agencies have been stuck, not knowing how much aid is needed or which areas need it most.

"The only information we have been able to get so far is from the UN and some from the news," said Javier. "We should have good ground reach, but are really impeded by this lack of access because even our partners on the ground have been hit themselves."

Officials and rescue workers hope that Sunday will see concerted efforts by authorities to set up command centres and rescue groups, which will in turn help bring supplies to those who need them most. But gaining access to those areas will prove hard, said Richard Gordon of the Philippine Red Cross, who added that without bulldozers or tractors to clear paths, volunteers will have to bring cutting equipment to clear uprooted trees and debris.

The Philippines sees roughly 20 typhoons every year, with some more devastating than others. Last year's Typhoon Bopha killed more than 1,100 people and caused over $1bn in damage.

Haiyan – the 25th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year – is expected to make landfall in several provinces in central Vietnam with winds around 220km/h (137mph). More than 450,000 troops have been deployed, as well as 12 planes, 356 ships and thousands of vehicles, in order to mobilise supplies, with more than 300,000 people evacuated in Da Nang and Quang Ngai provinces.

"It may be the strongest storm to hit Vietnam in history," said Vietnam's director of the Central Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Centre in Bui Minh Tang. Coastal areas should expect to see waves as high as 5-8 meters (16-26ft) and a wind radius up to 500km wide, officials warned.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/n ... hilippines

[Anthea]

BBC News

Typhoon Haiyan: Philippines airport 'completely wrecked'

One of the worst storms on record has killed up to 10,000 people and destroyed homes, schools and an airport in the Philippines.

Eyewitness Captain John Andrews, from the Philippine Civil Aviation Authority, flew into the worst-hit areas to assess the damage.

He said the airport was "completely wrecked".

Link & Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24887924

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BBC News

Typhoon Haiyan: Tacloban survivor's baby saved

Up to 10,000 people may have died in just one area of the Philippines hit by Typhoon Haiyan, officials say.

Some residents in the badly hit eastern city of Tacloban have gathered in a makeshift camp set up by the Philippines army.

Link & Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24887655

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BBC News

Typhoon Haiyan: Philippines battles to bring storm aid.The authorities in the Philippines are struggling to bring relief to some of the areas worst affected by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the country.



Up to 10,000 are said to have died in Tacloban city and hundreds elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands are displaced.

The typhoon flattened homes, schools and an airport in Tacloban.

Relief workers are yet to reach some towns and villages cut off since the storm.

Thousands of troops have been deployed to the disaster zones and military cargo planes are flying in supplies. However, rescuers are hampered by debris and damaged roads.

Pope Francis pleaded for aid for the victims in the mostly Catholic country: "Sadly, there are many, many victims and the damage is huge. Let's try to provide concrete help."



The Philippines has been offered aid from overseas:

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US was delivering helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and search and rescue equipment on request
The European Commission released 3m euros ($4m; £2.5m) in emergency funds and is sending a team of humanitarian experts
The UK Rapid Response Facility is to provide £5m ($8m) in aid and a £600,000 shipment of emergency equipment. A team of four experts is already in the disaster zone
The UN is to provide tents, food and relief supplies

Link to Full Large Article & 2 Videos:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24887746

[Anthea]

Appeals for help

Many strange groups appeal at times such as this - the best people to donate to is:



Full Details:

http://www.redcross.org.ph/donatenow

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BBC News

Philippines battle to move storm aid. The authorities in the Philippines are struggling to bring relief to some of the areas worst affected by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the country.


Jenny Dela Cruz has lost 11 members of her family including her two-year-old daughter, reports Jon Donnison

Pope Francis pleaded for aid for the victims in the mostly Catholic country, saying: "Sadly, there are many, many victims and the damage is huge. Let's try to provide concrete help."

US President Barack Obama issued a message saying he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life and extensive damage" and praising the "incredible resiliency of the Philippine people".

Typhoon Haiyan has now made landfall in Vietnam, near the tourist destination of Ha Long Bay, but as a much reduced Category One, with sustained winds of up to 140 km/h (85mph).

Some 600,000 people were evacuated in northern provinces.

'Not enough manpower'

The relief efforts in the Philippines are being focused on the eastern province of Leyte and its capital Tacloban.

But officials in the city said they were struggling to distribute aid, looting was widespread and order was proving difficult to enforce.


Footage emerged of people caught in floodwaters in Tacloban on Friday

In some areas, the dead are being buried in mass graves.

Houses have been flattened by the massive storm surge that accompanied Typhoon Haiyan.

"There is looting in the malls and large supermarkets. They are taking everything, even appliances like TV sets. These will be traded later on for food," said Tacloban city administrator Tecson John Lim.

"We don't have enough manpower. We have 2,000 employees but only about 100 are reporting for work. Everyone is attending to their families."

President Benigno Aquino, who has visited Tacloban, pledged to send 300 police and soldiers to "bring back peace and order".

But local residents fear for their safety.

Link to Article & Videos:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24887746

[Anthea]

Bodies in the streets, a plague of looters and 10,000 dead in one city alone: Filipinos struggle to cope with huge typhoon that was 'like a tsunami'



Typhoon Haiyan was a maximum category-five storm with gusts of up to 235mph
Authorities say in the city of Tacloban, Leyte, alone, 10,000 could be dead
Up to 4.3 million people have been affected, Filipino national disaster agency say
Bodies were seen floating in flooded streets in reminder of 2004 Tsunami
Filipino government now considering introducing martial law to combat looting
Britain has pledged more than £6million in aid and support for the Philippines
UN says 2.5m people need of food aid and UNICEF estimate 1.5 m children affected
A team of about 90 U.S. Marines and sailors have been dispatched to the nation
Hundreds of thousands of people in South East Asia have been evacuated
Vietnam authorities have moved 883,000 people in 11 central provinces to safe zones
Typhoon has now made landfall in Sanya in south China's Hainan province

The Filipino government has threatened the introduction of martial law to battle looting in the wake of the super typhoon Haiyan, which caused a 'tsunami-like disaster', feared to have claimed 10,000 lives in one city alone.

Reports of lawless mobs ransacking the homes of the dead and remains of shops in Tacloban, Leyte, one of the worst hit parts of the country, has forced President Benigno Aquino to deploy police and army troops to the area to restore calm.

Efforts by aid agencies to deliver food and water have been hampered by plagues of looters attacking emergency convoys and stealing from supply vans, the Philippine Red Cross have said. A TV station reported ATM machines have also been broken open.

President Benigno Aquino said: 'Tonight, a column of armoured vehicles will be arriving in Tacloban to show the government's resolve and to stop this looting.'



Super-typhoon Haiyan struck with such force that entire villages were flattened, ships were swept inland on a sea of debris and corpses were left hanging from coconut trees after the waves receded.

Even as families began to grieve for their dead, they faced a grim battle to find shelter and forage for food and clean water amid the devastation.

Dazed survivors walked the streets ‘like zombies looking for food’ while looters rampaged through shops and mobs attacked aid trucks loaded with food, tents and water.

Residents of Taclon have spoken of the impact the storm is having on survivors, who have been left without food or shelter.



Full Distressing Article Photos & Video:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... story.html

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BBC News

Phlippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a state of national calamity to speed relief efforts for victims of Typhoon Haiyan.


"One shirt. That's all I'm asking for": The BBC hears survivors' stories

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

Thousands of survivors are still desperately waiting for the aid effort to reach them.

Up to 10,000 people are feared to have been killed.

Tacloban is one of the worst affected cities. The BBC's Jon Donnison, who is there, says there does not yet seem to be an effective operation to get help to those in need.

This is expected to change over the next few days, he says.



Hundreds of thousands more people have been displaced after the high winds and floodwaters destroyed their homes. Damage to roads and airports has delayed the delivery of aid.

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

It then headed west, sweeping through six central Philippine islands.

Struggle

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

A picture is slowly emerging of the full damage wrought by the storm:

The exposed easterly town of Guiuan, Samar province - population 40,000 - is said to be largely destroyed
Three-hundred people were killed in the town of Basey, also in Samar, the provincial disaster office confirmed
Tacloban, Leyte province, was largely flattened by a massive storm surge and scores of corpses are piled by the roadside, leaving a stench in the air as they rot. Hundreds of people gathered at the airport desperate for food and water, others trying to get a flight out
Disaster worker Dennis Chong told the BBC that assessments in the far north of Cebu province had shown some towns had suffered "80-90% damage"
Baco, a city of 35,000 in Oriental Mindoro province, was 80% under water, the UN said.

A huge international relief effort is under way, but rescue workers have struggled to reach areas cut off since the storm.

However, reports from Tacloban say that soldiers have been on the streets distributing food and water to some residents and the US military has sent marines to the city.

The head of the Philippine Red Cross, Richard Gordon, described the situation as "absolute bedlam".

"It's only now that they were able to get in and we're beginning just to bring in the necessary food items... as well as water and other things that they need," he told the BBC.



Jane Cocking, the humanitarian director for Oxfam, said her colleagues witnessed "complete devastation... entire parts of the coastline just disappeared".

A Philippine military spokesman was quoted as saying on Monday that 942 people had died in the typhoon's aftermath, though it is clear the official death toll will rise significantly.

Some 660,000 people have been displaced, according to UN figures, among a total of 9.8 million affected.

Senior UN humanitarian official John Ging said the UN's Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, was on her way to the Philippines.

A priority of the UN's response teams once on the ground would be the burial of bodies to meet concerns about public health, he said.






A 21-year-old woman lies exhausted on the debris-covered floor at a makeshift medical facility in Tacloban after giving birth to a baby girl. The storm surge swept away her mother.

Links & Videos:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24901993

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BBC News

Cebu: Couple 'hid under table' to survive typhoon

The Philippines continues to deal with the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the country on Friday.

President Benigno Aquino has declared a state of national calamity to speed relief efforts for victims. He said the two of the worst affected provinces, Leyte and Samar, had suffered massive destruction and loss of life.

Alistair Leithead reports from the island of Cebu, with details of how survivors are struggling to cope.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24908187

[Anthea]

BBC News

The President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, says the death toll from Friday's typhoon may be lower than first thought.



In an interview with CNN, he said the number of 10,000 killed was "too high" and the figure was more likely up to 2,500.

The UN says more than 11 million people are believed to have been affected and some 673,000 displaced.

The relief operation is being stepped up, but many are still without aid.

The earlier figure of 10,000 feared killed came from a police officer and local official and may have arisen from the "emotional trauma" of being at the centre of the disaster, Mr Aquino said.

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

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has put the official death toll at 1,798, as of 22:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Tuesday. The number of injured stands at 2,582 with 82 listed as missing.

Angry residents

Despite the increased aid effort, many survivors still badly need food, water and shelter, aid officials say.

Several countries have deployed ships and aircraft to help, but the damage to transport links and bad weather are hindering distribution of relief supplies.

"The mobilisation of air assets, clearing away the debris, opening up the routes - this is a top priority," John Ging, director of operations at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told the BBC.

"It's happening. It's happening too slowly, but it's happening and everybody is working flat out to make it better."

Tacloban - a city of 220,000 on Leyte island - is particularly badly affected.

The BBC's Jonathan Head described how the main road from the airport to the city was clogged with refugees and debris, with residents becoming angry at the lack of progress and increasing breakdown in security.

Bodies remain uncollected, local government has been wiped out, and central government, which is meant to have taken over, is almost invisible, our correspondent says.

Earlier, the UN launched an appeal for $301m (£190m). It has already released $25m to meet immediate needs.


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

Aid agencies have warned that the security situation is worsening.

There are reports of food warehouses and grocery shops being ransacked and people starting to fear for their safety.

An aid convoy travelling to Tacloban is reported to have been attacked and two of the assailants shot dead by troops.







Large crowds gathered at the airport hoping to be evacuated, leading to scuffles with the security forces.

The Philippines air force has been flying C-130 transport planes in and out of Tacloban airport, carrying relief supplies and evacuating hundreds of residents.
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DEC members are doing all they can to get aid through but they need a huge injection of funds in order to do so”

Saleh Saeed DEC chief executive

UK charities launch typhoon appeal
Typhoon Haiyan: Aid in numbers

The US is sending its aircraft carrier USS George Washington and other navy ships to help with the relief work. The carrier is expected to arrive within the next few days. The UK's Royal Navy destroyer HMS Daring is also making its way from Singapore.

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.


Planes carrying aid are stuck on the tarmac in Cebu

Link & Videos:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24920250

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BBC News

Teenager trapped for six days with family's bodies



The Philippine government says it is facing its biggest ever logistical challenge following Typhoon Haiyan, which has affected more than 11 million people.

Rescue centres and hospitals are struggling to cope with the injured and displaced and have appealed for help.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes visited one hospital in Tacloban, where he met a 13-year-old girl, who lost her entire family in the disaster.

Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24932768