END OF THE WORLD
What one survivor said After she spent hours walking through carnage in the Philippines
MORE than 10,000 people are feared dead in one Philippines city alone after Typhoon Haiyan unleashed ferocious 275kmh winds and giant waves that washed away houses, schools and airport buildings.
Corpses were seen scattered on pavements and among flattened buildings, while looters raided grocery stores and petrol stations in search of food, fuel and water.
The situation in the streets was described by a witness as that of a ‘movie’. Jenny Chu, a medical student in Leyte Island province told Reuters news agency how ‘people are walking like zombies, looking for food’.
Local officials on Leyte, hardest hit by the typhoon, said there may be 10,000 dead in the provincial capital of Tacloban alone, which is home to 200,000 people and is 580km south-east of Manilla.
‘It’s like the end of the world’, said another witness, Nancy Chang, who was on business in Tacloban, and said that she had to walk for three hours through a mess of mud and floating debris to reach a military-led evacuation military flight back to Manila.
Interior secretary Mar Roxas said a massive rescue operation was under way, saying: ‘We expect a very high number of fatalities as well as injured. All systems, all vestiges of modern living – communications, power, water – all are down. Media is down, so there is no way to communicate with the people in a mass sort of way.’
‘10,000 believed dead
in one city alone’
Many corpses hung on tree branches, buildings and pavements along roads and towns near Tacloban. ‘On the way to the airport we saw many bodies along the street,’ said Philippine-born Australian Mila Ward, 53, who was waiting at the airport in Tacloban to catch a military flight back to Manila.
‘They were covered with just anything – tarpaulin, roofing sheets, cardboards.’ Asked how many bodies, she replied: ‘Well over 100 where we passed.’
Last night, Eamon Gilmore announced emergency funding of €1million towards relief efforts. The Irish Aid funding, made available through trusted Irish charities and good causes, will go towards shelter, food, water and health.
Tents, blankets and other basic necessities will be distributed in the Philippines through Plan Ireland. Ireland’s Rapid Response Corps is also on standby to provide help to UN agencies operating on the ground.
The Tánaiste said: ‘Ireland has strong bonds with the Filipino people through our missionaries and through the many Filipinos working in our hospitals and elsewhere in Ireland. My thoughts are with the families of those who have perished, and indeed with those waiting to hear of news from their loved ones.’
The Irish Red Cross also pledged emergency support. Trócaire said 8,000 tarpaulins were being distributed to provide temporary shelter for survivors. ‘Agencies working on the ground are also assessing water and sanitation needs to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases, which will be one of the immediate threats to survivors.’
Officials in Leyte have projected the estimated death toll of 10,000 could climb even higher when emergency crews reach areas cut off by flooding and landslides. Even in the disaster-prone Philippines, which regularly contends with earthquakes, volcanoes and tropical cyclones, Typhoon Haiyan appears to be the deadliest natural disaster on record. Haiyan hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippine archipelago on Friday and quickly swept across its central islands before exiting into the South China Sea, packing winds of 235kmh that gusted to 275kmh, and a storm surge that
caused sea waters to rise six metres. Reports also trickled in from elsewhere on Leyte Island, and from neighbouring islands, indicating hundreds, if not thousands of more deaths. However, it will be days before the full extent of the storm’s impact can be assessed. Haiyan raced across the eastern and central Philippines, inflicting serious damage to at least six of the archipelago’s more than 7,000 islands, with Leyte, neighbouring Samar Island, and the northern part of Cebu appearing to take the hardest hits. It weakened as it crossed the South China Sea before approaching northern Vietnam, where it was forecast to hit land either late last night or early this morning. On Leyte, regional police chief Elmer Soria said the provincial governor told him the 10,000 deaths in Tacloban were primarily from drowning and collapsed buildings.
Television footage from Eastern Samar province’s Guiuan township – the first area where the typhoon made landfall – showed a trail of devastation.
Many houses were flattened and roads were strewn with debris and uprooted trees. Footage showed several bodies laid out on the street, covered only with blankets.
‘I have no house, I have no clothes. I don’t know how I will restart my life, I am so confused,’ one crying woman said.
‘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.’
A massive relief operation was under way, but the Philippine National Red Cross said its efforts were being hampered by looters, including some who attacked trucks of food and other relief supplies the agency was shipping from the southern port city of Davao to Tacloban.
With other rampant l ooting being reported, the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, said he was considering declaring a state of emergency or martial law in Tacloban.