10,000 Feared Dead After Typhoon Haiyan Hits Philippines
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It’s now believed that about 10,000 people are dead in Philippines after the island suffered from Haiyan, one of the worst storms ever to be recorded.
Typhoon Haiyan unleashed giant waves and ferocious winds that destroyed homes, schools and businesses. Bodies were strewn on tree branches and along sidewalks and looters, looking for food, water and fuel, raided gas stations and grocery stores.
Officials said the death toll could go higher as emergency crews get to areas that were cut off by landslides and flooding. The Philippines is commonly plagued by tropical cyclones, volcanoes and earthquakes; however, Typhoon Haiyan may be the deadliest ever for the island.
The typhoon hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippines and rapidly moved through its central islands before moving into the South China Sea. Winds were estimated to be 235 kilometers per hour with gusts to 275 km/h with a storm sea water surge of six meters.
It didn’t become clear until Sunday how devastated the island was; local officials said the hardest area to be hit – where 10,000 are feared down – was Leyte Island. Reports from other areas on the island as well as neighboring islands suggests thousands of others are dead but the full extent of Haiyan’s impact may not be known for days.
Mila Ward, a Philippine-born Australian, was waiting at the Tacloban airport to get a military flight to Manila, said the way to get to the airport, passengers saw at least 100 bodies on the street, covered with anything – roofing sheets, cardboards, tarpaulin, etc.
People, after the storm, could be seen retrieving loved ones’ bodies from inside buildings. On the streets are roofing materials, fallen trees and other debris.
Communication and Other Systems Cut Off
The Tacloban airport, situated 580 kilometers from Manila, is a muddy wasteland of debris – overturned cards and building material. The glass windows of the airport tower were broken, and relief helicopters were flying in and out. Tacloban City residential homes were either washed or blown away during the storm.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said all systems – power, water, communications – are down. He said there’s no way to talk to the people.
The typhoon hurried across the Philippines eastern and central areas, causing major damage on six of the 7,000 islands with Leyte taken the hardest hit. As Haiyan moved into the South China Sea, it decreased in strength and is forecasted to hit northern Vietnam on Monday.
Elmer Soria, Leyte’s regional police chief, said the provincial governor said there were approximately 10,000 deaths – mainly from collapsed buildings and drowning. The majority of those deaths occurred in the city of Tacloban, where 200,000 people live. A nearby town would hold a mass burial.
On Samar, the provincial disaster officer said a confirmed 300 people had died and another 2,000 were still missing. Rescuers had yet to reach some towns. A plead for food and water was made and communication was possible by radio only.
There were reports from other affected areas that indicated there may be hundreds of other deaths. The death rate is high, despite the government’s move to evacuate close to 800,000 people before the typhoon’s hit. The national disaster agency said four million people were affected by it.
President Benigno Aquino III took an aerial tour of the Leyte area, landing in Tacloban to get an up-close look at the catastrophe. Aquino said the key urgency for the government was to get power and communications to isolated regions and provide victims with both medical and relief assistance.
The World Comes To Help
The Philippine government overwhelmed by Typhoon Haiyan’s destruction has accepted assistance from both its U.S. and European allies. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the Pacific Command to send aircraft and ships to help in search and rescue operations and send emergency supplies. E.C. President Jose Manuel Barroso messaged Aquino saying, they were ready to help with the assistance if needed.
Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, expressed his sympathies and said the UN’s humanitarian agencies were working side by side with the island’s government to quickly react with emergency help.
The Philippines is no stranger to typhoons – known as cyclones and hurricanes in other parts of the world – but what makes Haiyan so different is that it had winds and was a size of impressive proportions and it hit the island’s most densely populated and impoverished areas. Many of the Tacloban residents seeking shelter at a local school with a tied down roof to the building may have been killed with Haiyan’s powerful winds caused the school to collapse after the roof was torn away.
Voltaire Gazmin, defense secretary for the Philippines, was unable to comprehend anything into words when learning about the devastation Tacloban suffered. Gazmin said people in the area are desperate because there’s nothing for them there. He said looting is definitely occurring there and in other parts of the island.
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